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Officials: Largest Drop in Uninsured in Four Decades; Gun Battle with Tsarnaev Brothers; CNN Poll: Clinton Rating Drops Amid Email Uproar; Unruly Passenger Forces Flight to Land. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 17, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

<06:30:30> JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight: the United flight from Dulles to Denver forced to turn around after a passenger reportedly rushed the cockpit. That passenger was subdued by other flyers and taken into custody once that flight landed. The unruly passenger now at a local hospital being evaluated, the other 38 passengers and crew heading to Denver this morning.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: New York real estate heir, Robert Durst, now formally charged with first-degree murder in the execution- style death of his friend, Susan Berman, back in 2000. If convicted, Durst could get the death penalty. He has waived extradition. It's not clear when Durst will be brought to Los Angeles, because now he's facing drug and weapons charges stemming from his arrest in New Orleans.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: New Obamacare numbers out this morning. The government estimates more than 16 million people now have coverage.

So, is health care coverage better now than before the law?

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live for us from Washington with the latest.

What's the answer, Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, for a lot of Americans, it's good news. The Department of Health and Human Services says about 16.4 million people have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Healthcare Act became law five years ago. Now, this translates into the biggest drop of uninsured Americans, so that the rate of uninsured now is 13.2 percent. It was about 20 percent in late 2014 before the health insurance marketplace was launched in 2013.

So, the health of HHS credits the gains to the adults under 26 years old, who are able to remain on their parents' plan. Roughly, more than two million folks, and the big number of Latinos and African- Americans who are able to benefit from the tax credits and the expanded Medicaid components. Now, Alisyn, the reason that we are learning about this in part is

because the administration is trying to get ahead of this debate with House Republicans who are unveiling a proposed budget for 2016 today. And that calls for privatizing -- partly privatizing Medicare and repealing the Affordable Care Act altogether.

Now, Republicans, they have tried and failed to repeal it in the past. But now that they control both chambers, they're going to try again -- John.

BERMAN: Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny heading to the White House to meet with President Obama. The two will attend the annual shamrock ceremony hosted by House Speaker John Boehner. And for the first time in 250 years, a gay group is marching in New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade. Mayor Bill de Blasio says he will not be on hand for a second year in a row because changes were not made to let more gay groups participate.

CAMEROTA: All right. It's time for CNN Money now. Business correspondent Alison Kosik is in our money center.

Alisyn, what is happening with oil?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We continue to see oil prices plunging. Crude oil prices falling to its lowest level in six years, hitting $42.85 a barrel. That's the lowest since March of 2009. Just a month ago, we were hearing of oil's comeback. Well, guess what? Now experts think the price could drop even lower than $40 a barrel.

It's not getting any cheaper to rent. In the past five years, rents have gone up 15 percent and they're outpacing income in most of the major cities in the U.S. That's according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. New York, Seattle and San Jose, California, those were some of the places topping the list with the highest rent increases.

Apple is getting in to the cable TV business just in time for the fall season. "The Wall Street Journal" saying Apple is in talks with broadcasters to offer a bundle of about 25 channels, including big names, like ABC, CBS and FOX. It would cost between $30 and $40 a month, a lot less than the average household pays for a cable subscription. If it includes CNN, I'm tempted.

PEREIRA: I'm totally down. You don't have to scroll through trying to remember where the channel you just saw that great movie. Oh, no, it's gone.

KOSIK: Yes.

PERERIA: All right. Thanks, Alison.

KOSIK: Sure. PEREIRA: Ahead, gripping testimony in the Boston marathon bombing trial. Police officers describing that dramatic shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers, as eight minutes of horror at close range. New details about the defendants' final hours of freedom, ahead.

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<06:38:37> CAMEROTA: Jurors in the Boston marathon bombing trial heard dramatic testimony about the firefight between police and the Tsarnaev brothers. They also inspected the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid from the police, and they were accompanied by an unusual observer.

CNN's Pamela Brown has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These eight minutes of sheer terror, the main focus of testimony Monday in the case against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Loud explosions! Loud explosion! Loud explosion!

BROWN: Three police officers testifying about April 19th, the day of the Watertown shoot-out, four days after the Boston marathon bombing. Officers say the Tsarnaev brothers carjacked a Mercedes SUV. And when Officer Joseph Reynolds passes the stolen vehicle in a residential neighborhood. He says the older brother, Tamerlan gets out and begins firing at his cruiser.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. Shots fired.

BROWN: Within minutes, back-up response. This photo displayed in court shows the brothers ducking behind the SUV for cover. Police testifying both brothers were shooting and throwing pipe bombs and one pressure cooker bomb at them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have explosives, some type of grenades. They're in between houses down here.

BROWN: After Tamerlan runs out of bullets, Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese says he tackles him, trying to arrest him and that's when he says, quote, "all of a sudden, I can hear an engine revving."

The officer is testifying that the younger brother, Dzhokhar, was behind the wheel of the SUV, driving straight for them, running over and killing his brother.

<06:40:09> The prosecution arguing this moment shows Dochart's intent to kill the police all on his own. Earlier in the day, the jurors took a field trip to the boat where Dzhokhar was arrested. Hoisted on a lift, jurors saw the more than 100 bullet holes riddling the panels. Dzhokhar also present, expressing little emotion at the boat where his alleged terror spree came to an end.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks, Pamela.

Really crucial moments at this trial. So, let's continue the conversation with Joey Jackson, HLN legal analyst, criminal defense attorney, and Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst.

And, guys, there are really two episodes that I want to dissect right now -- there's the boat, there's the issue of the boat and the field trip to the boat, and then there's eight minutes of terror, the shoot- out which was only a matter of a few yards apart. I mean, the cops and the brothers were a few yards apart, shooting and hurling bombs at each other.

Let's start with the moments of terror, Mel. What are the key moments that the jury will take away from this? The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was throwing bombs at the cops? The fact that he was behind the wheel trying to run down cops and perhaps even his brother?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: You know, John, it's an excellent question, good morning to both of you guys.

And let's take a step back because this could go either way. Again, you've got a case where we're gearing up for the death penalty arguments. The prosecution as you already said, John, is going to be arguing he's throwing bombs, he's trying to kill the police, he gets in the car and drives right at us?

Now, here's an interesting thing -- I think the defense will take the same moment, John, because one of the officers said he could have easily, there was plenty of room, to not hit the brother, to not run the brother over. And I think you're going to see the defense argue, John, in the death penalty phase, this was the tipping point where you've got a 19-year-old who -- you know, look, if he's of his right mind, he's not going to kill his brother, he's going to escape. I think he just gun it is to try to get out of there.

I bet they're going to argue that it's at this moment that he starts to panic. It's at this moment he starts to realize the weight of his actions, that's why he writes the explanation in the boat, John.

BERMAN: Joey?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: That certainly is the defense's argument.

You know what the prosecution's argument is -- this is a person who was attempting to save himself. He causes carnage. He did he have states a community, and then he attempts to get away. And so selfish was he, that he took his brother's life so that he could spare and save his own.

Look at the police officers affected, look at the community affected, look at the nation devastated by his action. This warrants one thing, ladies and gentlemen, and that's death. Remember, Mel, John, that's what they're playing for.

BERMAN: The only issue here.

JACKSON: Absolutely, the only issue. They're conceding and not otherwise contesting any aspect of this case. Yes, they looked at the tweets and did he tweet like a normal teenager would tweet. But the reality is, they're saying he did it. However, he was so overly influenced.

And make now mistake about it. When you talk about that boat, those scribblings and that manifesto hating America, was his brother alive to scribble that, too? Or was that his own ramblings in the boat of his own mind, of his own consequences, of his own actions. This, ladies and gentlemen, only warrants one thing, put him to death.

BERMAN: Hold off on the boat for one more minute, Mel, because I want to talk about the car for a second, because not just did he drive at the police officers, he drove at his brother. He ran over his brother. How will lawyers use that fact in this case?

ROBBINS: Well, you better believe they're going to use that fact and they're going to use every fact from this point forward and they're going to argue it both ways, John. Prosecution is going to argue, you know, that this was a guy who you know, he and his brother intended to not only kill and maim people. But they didn't care about dying themselves.

BERMAN: Martyrs. It's martyrdom.

ROBBINS: And he ran his brother over. Yes, martyrdom.

And he ran his brother over purposefully and then writes in the boat how he's jealous that his brother is already dead and basically is a martyr. Now, the defense is going to argue, no, no, this shows he loved his brother, he wouldn't have killed his brother, he was panicking in that moment. This is the moment where, you know, everything changes for him.

But, you know, this is going to come down to closing arguments, John, not necessarily testimony. The prosecutor and the defense attorneys, they're gathering bits that they can then hammer home in a closing argument.

The closing argument in the death penalty phase of this case will be hours long as they argue every little single little twist and turn from this point forward, John.

BERMAN: Let's talk about the boat, quickly, Joey, because they've got a field trip. They got to see the boat riddled with bullets here. In fact, let me read a tweet from a reporter there, poll reporter who was covering this event there when the jurors saw it. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev standing a little bit away. Polls reporters say the jurors seem to be struck by the sheer number of bullet holes in the boat, 126.

<06:45:02> Does that engender sympathy for that kid? JACKSON: Not to the extent that prosecution is going to spin it this

way. This was a person who hurled bombs at us, who hurled projectiles, in addition to shooting feverishly, killing an MIT officer, forgetting for a minute the devastation they caused at the marathon.

But in the getaway, look what they did. And in addition to killing the MIT officer, there was another officer at that scene who almost died a at their hands. You better believe it was riddled with 110 bullets, it would have been riddled with 300 bullets, because we didn't want to give them an additional opportunity to kill a police officer or devastate that residential neighborhood further that he was hiding in within that boat.

BERMAN: And, Mel, you think that boat, particularly what was written side of it -- one of the two key pieces of evidence in this entire trial?

ROBBINS: Yes, the -- his own words, John, will either save him or kill him. The jury is going to focus in on what he wrote as he was in that boat. And, look, if he wanted to be a martyr, he could have stood up and done suicide by gunfire and had the martyrdom happen. He happened to surrender, which I also think the defense is going to hammer.

The other major piece of evidence that's going to sway this jury one way or the other, is the photograph of Dzhokhar, standing behind the little 8-year-old in his family. The 8-year-old that he killed as he placed the bomb, and I think it's going to come down to that note to this powerful testimony and that chilling photo, John and Joey.

BERMAN: All right. A big, big day. Mel, Joey, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thank you, John. Be well, Mel.

BERMAN: Michaela?

ROBBINS: Thank you.

PEREIRA: All right, John.

Hillary Clinton's approval taking a hit over the email controversy, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. What could this all mean for a Clinton presidential campaign going forward? We'll examine.

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<06:50:45> CAMEROTA: Congressional Republicans today begin to work to pass their first budget in nearly 10 years, but there are issues.

Let's bring in CNN political commentator, Republican consultant and Sirius XM host, Margaret Hoover, and CNN political analyst and editor- in-chief of "The Daily Beast," John Avlon.

Guys, great to see you. Happy St. Patrick's Day. MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN AVLON, THE DAILY BEAST: Represent.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, there are two different kinds of GOP hawks, Margaret. There are the defense hawks who want more military spending and there are the budget hawks who want to tighten the belt.

Who wins?

HOOVER: You know, it's interesting, because you even have hybrids. You have people like Paul Ryan who is sort of both. Right? He understands the value, our GDP for military spending -- our spending on military spending per GDP or per capita is the lowest it's been since, well, certainly in the 20th century.

So, you know, there are people like Paul Ryan who understand that this is actually debilitating for the military and understand the argument that, like, yes, we've got to tighten our belt. The biggest spending outside of defense spending is entitlement spending, and they're not going to take on the tough entitlement stuff.

So, in terms of the question of defense hawks versus budget hawks, my guess is they end up striking a deal and nobody is happy.

BERMAN: But there's a real disagreement here and it's an important one. This is a great discussion to have.

Look, you know, it's what the country wants to do with the resources we have here, and there's a fundamental disagreement between the people there, it could play on the presidential trail, people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, who don't want to spend quite as much on the military. They're going to have to come to terms with this.

AVLON: They are and it's really fascinating because economics is sort of theoretically the one thing Republicans agree on, right? They could say, oh, let's not talk about social issues, let's focus on economics, because that's what we agree on.

But the problem is they don't. The problem is that there's a big conflict between the deficit hawks and the defense hawks. The deficit, which was a rallying cry in 2010, 2012, it's kind of gone away as an issue, because guess what, folks? Oh, the deficit has been cut in more than half over the last couple of years. So, it's no longer has that urgency. So, instead they're looking at their base constituencies and there's always that also reluctance to cut because there's not a big constituency for cutting Medicaid. I'm just saying.

HOOVER: It's worth mentioning part the reason the deficit is better is because of the sequester. Thank you, Republicans. Thank you, Republicans.

AVLON: Part of it, but -- no, don't take credit for that because it's also obviously the economic growth has been really driving it.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Democrats must be taking it a perverse pleasure in this fight between Republicans, because Democrats have been hit for the past ten years, however long about spending.

HOOVER: Well, they haven't passed a single budget. What will happen here, Alisyn, is that a budget will be passed, but it's not going to be pretty, and that's what happens. We don't have a leading Republican forcing the Congress's hand. Instead, you have war lordism in the Republican Party. You got Boehner, you got Jim Jordan. you have the Freedom Caucus, you have whoever is in the Senate, Ted Cruz rabbling up the conservative groups on the side to undermine Mitch McConnell.

I mean, it's not pretty, but this is democracy. Democracy is the sausage-making process isn't pretty.

CAMEROTA: Got it.

All right. Let's talk about some new CNN polls. They're very interesting on --

BERMAN: They're fascinating.

CAMEROTA: They're fascinating, on the findings of Hillary Clinton.

So, here's the first one, this is about her favorability rating. It has dropped, since, a few months ago, November of 2014, it was 59 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable. Now, it is 53 percent favorable, 44 percent unfavorable. So, it has gone down 6 points, her favorability.

How do you see that?

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, John, do you think they would have gone down that same amount just as a factor of time, not even with the scandal? They've been headed that way since you left the office of the secretary of state.

AVLON: No, not necessarily. I think Hillary Clinton has had a bad couple of weeks, in part because -- by not having a campaign apparatus, they were caught a little bit flatfooted by an accusation whose major impact is this, it's simply narratively reinforce a lot of the negative narratives for the Clintons. It's not really about the emails so much, so much about the synoptic connections that are being created.

But she didn't have a great week. And, yes, sure, as the campaign gets on, the halo effect from the secretary of state is going to diminish. That's life. That's reality. But I do think there was an acceleration because of the bad weekend.

HOOVER: I think the big headline here, it's fascinating. If you look at the arc of her popularity and her favorability ratings, really since 2008 when she was running as a candidate, they are now as low as they were in the summer of 2008 when she and Barack Obama were fighting for the Democratic nomination -- 53 percent was 2008, July and August.

BERMAN: But there's still net positive her favorability ratings --

HOOVER: That's right.

BERMAN: -- which is a lot of candidates right now who are running cannot say that.

HOOVER: That's right.

BERMAN: Because it's a net positive rating. There's a question about, would you be proud to have Hillary Clinton as president? Which is a strange question, I haven't heard that question before -- 57 percent say they would be proud to have her as president.

<06:55:06> I talked to both Democrats and -- look, there's no Democrat right now who is happy with what's been going on with Hillary Clinton, and there's every Republican who is gleeful. But Democrats say they're not -- she's not hemorrhaging the way they thought she might and Republicans I've talked to said the same thing.

HOOVER: I think that number, which I agree is really interesting. Doesn't that have to cut towards the historic nature of her potential presidency? I mean, ultimately, it's saying would you be proud to have the first woman president of the United States? Who doesn't think that's a great thing? Finally.

I mean that's -- and when you look at the cross tabs on the poll, you see young people are proud, you see Hispanics are proud. I mean pretty much across the board, it's positive.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. So, it's not about her personally, it's about what she represents. And her people have to be looking at these numbers, are they buoyed by these numbers, or are they discouraged by these numbers? How do they parse this?

AVLON: I've got to think -- you know, I think Margaret makes a great point about proud and the deeper dimensions, that said -- I mean, that's a more important number than anything related to a short-term scandal, right? I mean, that's the deeper wind at a candidate's back, because any successful campaign has got to be bigger than the candidate. It's got to be crusade that's getting larger.

And if you've got, you know, that significant majority of Americans say they'd be proud to have a person as president, that's a strong balance against any short-term winds of controversy.

BERMAN: And, you know, of course, yes, the complicating theme, maybe how to announce in the next month while the scandal is still there, but there's more of an operational thing than anything else.

AVLON: But the more they delay that, the more they're going to be susceptible to the short-term scandals. They got to start. That's one of the clear takeaways of the last two weeks.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret, great to have you guys. Thanks so much. HOOVER: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: We're following a lot of news, so let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a situation with a passenger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No fighting, David.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ran forward towards the cockpit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, please. (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sixty-eight percent feel the U.S. should be negotiating with Iran.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The best option as a diplomatic resolution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deadline really is approaching. Just two weeks to go now.

BERMAN: The Iraqi offensive to take Tikrit back from ISIS has stalled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It worries me we've got a Shia-led initiative into Tikrit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He knew he was miked up and wasn't careful enough to keep his mouth shut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still believe to this day in my heart. He's the responsible for the death of three people.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Our Chris Cuomo has the day off. Mr. John Berman joins us today.

BERMAN: Good morning.

PEREIRA: We begin with breaking news, a frightening ordeal for nearly 40 passengers and crew aboard a United flight to Denver. The plane was forced to return to Dulles after a passenger reportedly rushed the cockpit.

CAMEROTA: Other passengers jumping into action to subdue the man. The end of the ordeal captured on cell phone video.

CNN's Rene Marsh is at Dulles International Airport with the breaking developments.

What happened, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, you're about to see that video, that mid-air takedown happening on board. And you're about to hear the pilots as they describe to air traffic control what this violent passenger was doing on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Declaring an emergency due to a passenger disturbance.

MARSH (voice-over): Breaking overnight, a frightening scene aboard a Denver-bound jetliner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ran forward towards the cockpit and he is being restrained by other passengers.

MARSH: This passenger was screaming and tried to rush the compit. But passengers on board subdued him shortly after takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't move, David, you're OK. We're going to get you off this plane, buddy.

MARSH: United Airlines Flight 1074 heading from the Washington, D.C. area to Denver, at around 10:40 p.m., when the incident forced the pilot to turn around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cockpit is secure, and we would just like to return to the airport and have the authorities meet us.

MARSH: A spokesman for the airline saying in part, "Flight 1074 returned to the airport following takeoff on Monday evening, after a passenger failed to comply with crew instructions."

Local law enforcement officials met the aircraft at the gate and detained the passenger.

This video taken by one of the passengers during the altercation, bruises below his right cheek and near his mouth. Several others holding down his head as one person tries to calm him down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax and don't move.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: In this day and age, that passengers help themselves and they help the flight crew to get their flights safely to their destination, largely because of what happen on September 11th, 2001.

MARSH: A spokeswoman for the airport saying no passengers were injured and no weapons were found.

The unruly passenger was eventually removed by law enforcement and taken to a hospital for evaluation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, OK, OK, OK. I got him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got him?

<07:00:00> UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you'll be OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: All right. Well, this violent ordeal midair, it ended up grounding that flight overnight.