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Efforts to Stand Your Ground Law; Liz Cheney to Run for Senate; Retailers Tracking Shoppers Inside Stores; Bernanke Testifies on Capitol Hill.

Aired July 17, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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

MARC CAPUTO, POLITICAL REPORTER, MIAMI HERALD: The violent crime rate has decreased. The homicide rate has not only decreased since 2005 -- and this coincides with loosening gun laws and increasing numbers of concealed weapons permits. On its face, they don't see the data that justifies it. Certainly, there is other data that gun-control proponents cite. It's a Republican State. It's a pro-gun state and it has been for quite some time. Reversing that law in that state is really difficult.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: This was a statement that was released after the verdict. The Florida Governor Rick Scott set up a task force to take a close look at it. And the release put out by this spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, "The task force recommended that the law not be overturned, and Governor Scott agrees."

So basically, what you're saying, knowing the politics of Florida, it's unlikely any significant change, no matter what Stevie Wonder says, or other folks are saying, it's unlikely Florida's going to change this?

CAPUTO: Yeah, right. Stevie Wonder is not going to be performing in Florida for the rest of his life because if he says he's not going to come here because of Stand Your Ground on the books, it's going to be on the books. If there were changes, which I think is unlikely, you see changes give clear direction to juries or judges how to apply the law, whether you can pursue or not again, but I think those are unlikely changes.

BLITZER: You cite a "Tampa Bay Times" statewide analysis -- and I've read it as well -- of the Stand Your Ground law in Florida as it's been used in some 200 cases. The paper wrote this, the paper wrote, "People who kill the black person walk free 73 percent of the time while those who killed the white person went free 59 percent of the time."

So, what's your analysis of this Tampa Bay -- this newspaper review of some 200 cases?

CAPUTO: Well, it was a really great series. The "Tampa Bay Times" is a part of the "Miami Herald." I have to plug that.

But if you look at the entire story, there's more data there. One of the reasons that people who killed a black person walked free more than people who kill a white person, according to the "Tampa Bay Times" analysis, was that the black shooting victims in those cases happened to be either armed, and therefore was a threat, or was in the process of committing some sort of crime. And Stand Your Ground says you have no duty to retreat, you can meet force with force and use deadly force if you fear that the other person is doing something wrong or something illegal that could harm you and harm you gravely.

BLITZER: You heard Marc Caputo saying he doesn't think Stevie Wonder will be performing for the rest of his life in Florida.

CAPUTO: Yeah, we're not going to see Stevie Wonder --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It's going to be sad for a lot of fans in Florida. He has a lot of them there. If you say they're not going to change that law and he doesn't change his mind, that's going to be sad for a lot of folks.

CAPUTO: Well, they can catch him on YouTube, perhaps, or something.

BLITZER: Yeah. It's always bettor see him in person, listen in person. Stevie Wonder is Stevie Wonder, a true, true legend.

Marc, thanks very much for joining us.

CAPUTO: Thank you much.

BLITZER: The daughter of the former vice president, Dick Cheney, sets her sights on the United States Senate. The man Liz Cheney is challenging says, wait a minute, not so fast. Why he thinks Wyoming voters will stick with him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The American man on the run from espionage charges in the United States may be leaving the Moscow airport soon. And he's been there a while, we should say, almost a month already. Edward Snowden sitting in the airport, no passport, unable to leave New York, no clear destination if he does leave. He's now formally requested asylum in Russia, if you call this handwritten=letter formal. The letter is dated Monday. Snowden's lawyer in Moscow predicts his client will be able to leave the airport eventually. His words, in fact, "in the next few days." Let's see what happens there.

Senator Lindsey Graham is jumping into the dispute over the NSA leaker. The South Carolina Republican says he wants the U.S. to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympic Games if -- if Russia grants asylum to Snowden. Russia will host those games. Graham says letting Snowden stay would be, in his words, "a slap in the face to the United States." Snowden has been holed up in that Moscow airport and, as we reported, he's applied for temporary asylum in Russia.

Another Cheney enters the political arena. Liz Cheney, the former Vice President Dick Cheney's eldest daughter, will run for the United States Senate from Wyoming next year, hoping to unseat Mike Enzi. In her campaign announcement, Cheney says, "The country needs a new generation of leaders to step up to the plate. But Senator Enzi says, wait a minute. He thinks voters in Wyoming will eventually stick with him.

Our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, caught up with Mike Enzi on Capitol Hill. Dana is joining us.

What did he have to say about Liz Cheney's challenge, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the idea of Liz Cheney running for Senate is a big deal, last name Cheney. She's one of Dick Cheney's daughters and also because challenging a fellow Republican and somebody who is a longtime family friend. Mike Enzi might not have national name recognition, but he's somebody who is well known in the state where she's running in Wyoming.

He was quoted, Mike Enzi, as telling some reporters, yesterday when the news broke, that, I thought we were friends. When I caught up with him today after a Health Care Committee meeting, I asked him about that and a few other things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Why do you think that she believes that you aren't doing a good enough job as a Republican Senator representing Wyoming, that she would be better?

SEN. MIKE ENZI, (R), WYOMING: I don't know. She's never been to any of my listening sessions. I do listening sessions all over Wyoming where I sit and listen to what constituents have to say. I'm an old shoe salesman. So I know there is a customer, I know who the customer is, I listen to the customer, and I see how that fits with inventory that I've got, which is what we're doing with legislation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: One of fascinating things about this decision by Liz Cheney to challenge Mike Enzi is, as you know, Wolf, we've seen in many instances where you've had intra-party fights, particularly inside the Republican Party during the last few election cycles, it's because a Senator has been here for a long time, maybe work too much with Democrats, and somebody has challenged them from the right, somebody who is more conservative. Mike Enzi is considered extremely conservative.

The other instance is when somebody has just lost touch with people back home. Mike Enzi's not known as somebody who has done that. He does go home to Wyoming every weekend, as you saw there. He talks to people there all the time. It's not the case with him.

But from the perspective, Liz Cheney -- I talked to people close to her. They say she bought a house in Wyoming just last year. She has been there growing up with her father and her mother, who have been -- from Wyoming. In fact, she said in her video announcing her candidacy her family goes back there to 1852. So she clearly wanted to run for the Senate. Mike Enzi decided he was going to stay in, even though he's a third- term Senator, and decided now's the time to do it. Better strike while the iron is hot. We'll see how hot it is.

BLITZER: It's going to be intense.

We'll have more with Dana on the story later in "The Situation Room" as well.

Dana, thanks very much.

Coming up this hour, here in CNN's NEWSROOM, attention all shoppers out there, retailers may be tracking your movements in department stores. We'll explain what's going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: If you walk around with your cell phone when you go shopping, guess what, big Brother may be watching you more than you think.

Pamela Brown is joining us in New York. She's got details, shocking details I must say, on what's called retail tracking.

Pam, we know surveillance cameras are watching all of us when we walk up and down the aisles but what else is going on?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, turns out, when you walk into a store with your cell phone, you could be tracked by some brick-and- mortar stores. Nordstrom set up an experiment to gather data about their shoppers by tracking their Smartphones. They are not alone. We seem to accept being tracked online but now retailers are doing the same thing at their brick-and-mortar locations. Some shoppers are not happy about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hello, welcome back to The Gap. How did the assorted tank tops work out for you?

BROWN (voice-over): Will the futuristic shopping experience be coming to a store near you? It's not as farfetched as you think. Retailers turning to technology, using video surveillance, and tracking signals from Smartphone to figure out how to get you to spend more.

TIM CALLAN, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, RETAILNEXT: The in-store analytics makes it possible for retailers to understand things like where they go, where they stop, and ultimately how all of it translated to sales at register.

BROWN: Upscale department chain Nordstrom ended a test program that gathered pings from Wi-Fi signals on customers' phones as they browse through the store. Some outraged after learning about the in-store surveillance. "Way over the line," one consumer wrote on Facebook.

Take a look at this video. The camera is set up in the ceiling near the entrance. As people enter, the software pinpoints them follows them throughout the store.

Retail Next, which is one of the companies providing the technology, says the software is so specific, it can tell exactly where inside the store a person is standing and even which direction their head is looking.

CALLAN: They know that there's a person and they know what that person is doing but they can't really marry it back to your personal identity.

BROWN: These heat maps are another tool. Red areas are spots where people stood looking at products for a long time.

Still, shoppers have mixed feelings about being watched by big brother.

UNIDENTIFIED SHOPPER: When they're storing data, figuring out exactly where you go, it's an invasion of privacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Retail Next says its technology is in more than 5,000 stores worldwide, and that is just one company. Nordstrom says it was just testing the program. It ended in May. It says it didn't store any data, nor did it have any way of identifying individuals.

But, Wolf, still a lot of shoppers are just freaked out by this, that they're being monitored through cell phones. Stores are saying this is our way of competing with online stores. Obviously, they have a leg up on them.

BLITZER: Certainly do. The technology, I must say, is almost breath taking to see what's going on --

BROWN: Yeah.

BLITZER: -- in these retail operations.

Pamela Brown, thanks very much.

Here's a question that a lot of us are interested in right now. Ben Bernanke, when he speaks, what happens? Well, Wall Street listens very, very carefully. The latest remarks from the Fed chief and how the markets are reacting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Ben Bernanke spent the morning testifying here in Washington up on Capitol Hill, taking questions from lawmakers about the future of the government's massive stimulus program.

Alison Kosik is over at the New York Stock Exchange, following the reaction.

What's the reaction so far? The open flow of stimulus apparently is going to keep oncoming. ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. That easy money, that stimulus will continue to flow at least for now. But Ben Bernanke also says the stimulus will likely begin to wind down toward the end of the year and then wrap up completely by the middle of next year. But what that's going to defend on is how well the economy does. The program could wind up being shortened, it could be extended if economic signals get better or they get worse.

On the one hand, Ben Bernanke's up beat about the housing market, which he says can only help the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: Rising home construction and home sales are adding to job growth, and substantial increases in home prices are bolstering household finances and consumer spending while reducing the number of homeowners with underwater mortgages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: On the other hand, while Bernanke clearly acknowledges the job market is improving, he also says it's still far from satisfactory. There are still 11.8 million workers out of work right now, Wolf. He is considering that as well -- Wolf?

BLITZER: He's pretty clear, though, as you know, that the Fed would start pulling back on some of that stimulus toward the end of the year. When he keeps saying that, you would think the markets would be a little more upset. Apparently, not so much.

KOSIK: You're right about that. It was last month, actually, that Bernanke made those comments about pulling back on stimulus. It actually spooked the market. We saw big selloffs because of those comments.

To be quite honest with you, I watched today's testimony. Nothing really new came out of it. No huge surprise in this testimony. Wall Street is used to hearing about this kind of general road map of the Fed, of scaling back on bond buying as the economy improving. And this is what makes investors happy to hear, that there is a contingency, to know that the Fed won't just pull the rug out from under the market if the economy is still struggling.

It's no secret that the stimulus has been the main thing that's been propping up stocks this year. There are some concerns about how stocks are going to fair without that crutch. Investors also know, in the back of their minds, that punch bowl, it can't stay out forever -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Good point, Alison.

Thanks very much.

Ahead here on the CNN NEWSROOM, Panama is investigating a seized North Korean ship, but they are coming up with more questions than answers. We'll have the latest. That's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's a story of international intrigue. Authorities in Panama right now intensifying their search of a North Korean ship that's loaded with hidden weapons. The ship remains at the Panamanian port where it was seized. A senior U.S. official tells CNN the U.S. had been tracking the vessel for several days as it sailed from Cuba.

"Rolling Stone" magazine is infuriating many of its readers by putting the Boston bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on its cover. They usually save that spot for rock stars, celebrities, even an occasional politician. Critics say "Rolling Stone" is glamorizing terrorism. The Facebook page is inundated with comments. There are now calls for a boycott of the magazine on Twitter. The CBS Corporation, by the way, says it will not sell the magazine with Tsarnaev on the cover in its stores.

The adopted son of the convicted child molester, Jerry Sandusky, no longer wants his father's last name. Matt Sandusky has filed a petition to legally change his name in the name of his wife and four children. Matt Sandusky was ready to testify in his father's child molestation trial last year. He told police he was abused by the former Penn State coach. But he was never called to the stand. Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 child abuse charges. He was sentenced to 30 -- from 30 to 60 years in prison.

Very different story coming up. A must-see moment, I should say. The big one that was getting away, so this fisherman went to plan "B." Got into a wrestling match -- look at this -- with a shark.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Amazing video coming out of Massachusetts. Look at this. A Nantucket fisherman spent nearly an hour trying to reel in a 200-pound shark. Looked like the big one might get away. What does the fisherman do? Hands the pole to his cousin, runs into the water and drags the shark to shore with his bare hands. Posted some pictures with his wrestling opponent, then he let it back in. He says he's caught about 100 sharks this year, most of them in Florida, and that he always lets them go back into the water.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. See you 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

Brooke Baldwin picks it up from here.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you.

Good to see all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.