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Weiner's New Sexting Scandal; Snowden Allowed to Leave Moscow Airport; William, Kate and Baby Leave Palace; Investors Look for Major Earnings Reports; Calls Grow for San Diego Mayor to Resign; Family That Zimmerman Helped Due to Speak; Pope's Security Raised to "High Risk"

Aired July 24, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM: the twisted tale of the text.

ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: There is no question that what I did was wrong. This behavior is behind me.

COSTELLO: A new scandal and a mayor's run this morning threatened. By his side, the good wife.

HUMA ABEDIN, ANTHONY WEINER'S WIFE: I love him. I have forgiven him. I believe in him.

COSTELLO: Ahead, the politics and a resurrection in question. Could Anthony Weiner be forgiven again?

Also, hailstorm. Baseball sized hail blanketing the middle of the country. The violent storm lasting only minutes, then gone in a flash.

Plus, inside the terror flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Watch out, dude. This engine is on the ground.

COSTELLO: Brand new pictures of the moment of impact. The southwest jet's nose dive at LaGuardia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take your seat.

COSTELLO: Ahead, what the NTSB now knows about the crash.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Carol Costello. We begin with a story of personal betrayal and public trust.

Two years after a tawdry sexting scandal chased him from Congress, Anthony Weiner is begging for forgiveness again. It turns out he continued sending lewd messages and photos to at least one woman, even after he was forced to resign from Congress.

What may be most remarkable in all of this, the vocal support he's getting from his wife, Huma. Two years ago the long-time aide to Hillary Clinton stood -- the longtime aide to Hillary Clinton stood by, she was mostly silent as he fessed up. Today she's speaking out for her husband and his bid to become New York City mayor.

CNN's Pamela Brown is in New York with more.

Good morning, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Carol. No question here that Huma Abedin is seen as Anthony Weiner's biggest political asset in all of this. The question remains, is it enough to save his campaign?

In an extraordinary and unprecedented move at yesterday's press conference she went to the podium and made her voice heard, saying she forgives her husband.

The question remains, will voters forgive him?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEINER: I have said that other texts and photos were likely to come out. And today they have.

BROWN (voice-over): Anthony Weiner admitting to online sex chats with women after resigning from Congress and undergoing therapy.

WEINER: Some of these things happened before my resignation, some of them happened after.

BROWN: The disgraced congressman once again guilty of the same behavior that publicly humiliated his wife back in 2011 while she was pregnant. Huma Abedin addressed the newly surfaced allegations this time in a very public way.

ABEDIN: Anthony's made some horrible mistakes. Both before he resigned from Congress and after. But I do very strongly believe that that is between us and our marriage.

BROWN: Abedin asking New Yorkers to forgive her husband like she has.

ABEDIN: I love him. I have forgiven him. I believe in him. And as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward.

BROWN: Weiner's latest apology came after new pictures and text messages with a 22-year-old woman surfaced on the gossip Web site thedirty.com. Weiner reportedly used the screen name "Carlos Danger" to carry on a sexually tinged relationship last summer.

WEINER: While some of the things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong. BROWN: Back in April when Weiner announced candidacy for New York mayor, he said more allegations could emerge.

WEINER: If reporters want to go try to find more, I can't say that they're not going to be able to find another picture.

BROWN: And with the continued possibility of more texts, there's no telling if Abedin's defense of her husband will help resurrect his political career.

ABEDIN: It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And, Carol, this morning, the "New York Times" and the "New York Daily News" said that Weiner should withdraw from the race. His opponents are saying that he's unfit for office. But Weiner has made it clear that he's not going anywhere, that he is staying in this mayoral race.

In fact, according to the most recent polls, he is still a top contender but it's yet to be seen how these new developments will impact him, how they're going to impact voters and how he's going to do in the polls. So we'll have to wait and see for that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure we will. Pamela Brown, thanks so much. We're going to talk more about the Anthony Weiner affair at the bottom of the hour.

After weeks stuck at a Moscow airport Edward Snowden can now leave. Russian media is reporting the Russian government is giving the NSA leaker papers to enter Russia legally. Now the visa is just temporary while Russia considers Snowden's request for asylum.

Phil Black is in Moscow. He joins us on the phone.

Tell us more, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Carol, you're right. So it's been more than four weeks since Edward Snowden first arrived here at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. We know that one week ago he officially applied for temporary asylum in this country. Asylum that would allow him to stay here for up to one year.

Since that time, the lawyer who assisted him with that application has said he should, any day now, receive paperwork that would allow him to officially cross over that immigration line and into Russia while his application for temporary asylum is being considered.

We are now told that he has received that paperwork. Those documents that give him a short-term official status to enter this country. What that means, is that today, it is very likely Edward Snowden will walk from this airport after more than four weeks on the run and more than four weeks of camping out here in this -- here in this airport. We're not specifically certain what time he will leave, how he will leave, will we get to see him, but we're waiting to learn that right now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. You said he can stay in Russia for up to the year providing that he fills the paperwork out and Russia accepts it, which we think they will. Well, we think it will. So will Snowden be allowed to travel outside of Russia?

BLACK: If his application for temporary asylum is allowed, then yes, he will have all the same rights as a Russian citizen. He will be able to travel. He will be able to move freely. But that is only once that application for temporary asylum has been approved. While he is in this interim stage where he has applied, he's waiting to give an answer, he's waiting to learn the answer from that application, and he's allowed to enter into Russia, no, he cannot leave Russia at this time.

But it is -- it will become a question of when that application is finally ruled upon as to just what his rights and freedoms will be. He will either be allowed to stay for that period of up to a year or he will have to leave Russia at that time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I know. Phil Black, I know you're gathering more information. We'll go back to you in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Phil Black, reporting live from Moscow.

The royal baby is barely two days old and mom and dad took him out of the house today. Kensington Palace that would be. No word on where the family was heading.

Earlier the Queen visited her great grandson for the very first time and we're still waiting, of course, to learn the baby's name.

CNN's Zain Verjee is outside of Buckingham Palace in London to talk about all things royal baby.

Good morning, Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Carol. There have been so many movements today. You have the Queen a short while ago leaving Buckingham Palace behind me going to Kensington Palace. And then we heard that William and Kate are also on the move.

Carol, I want to talk to you about a different kind of movement that I've come across. Just take a look at this. This is a royal baby potty training contraption and it's in pink. But you know, Baby Cambridge could use a blue one. And as you can see when you open it up, there's my -- there's my make-up, my lip gloss and --

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: What?

VERJEE: My eyeliner there. It also cheers once there's a successful wee or, you know, whatever else, there's a big cheer that comes out of this potty training thing. So I just wanted to share that with you. People who are interested to see what's going on here. Because there's royal baby fever.

Take a look at this, too. Carol, I found a royal diaper, fancy that. So I've been getting a few tips from the moms around here. And you know, I actually don't have a baby of my own nor have I ever changed a diaper, but you know, maybe someday in the future.

Hey, I didn't do too bad a job. And this got a little bit of a crown here. It's got the letter "G." I don't know if that's a sign that maybe the name may be George. But we know that in 42 days they have to decide on a name because that's legally supposed to happen here in the U.K. from the date of birth.

Back to you, Carol. Back to you, Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: All right. That was the most ridiculous report I've ever seen but somehow I really liked it.

Zain Verjee, thanks for bringing a smile to our faces this morning because now we've got to talk about the weather in Kansas because -- bye, little bear.

The weather in Kansas was really, really nasty. They're still cleaning up from one nasty storm.

Bill Guy in Hutchinson, Kansas, sent us this photo of hail, yes, literally the size of baseballs. He also says strong winds damaged several businesses and blew out windows at a hospital.

Indra Petersons live in New York.

That's unbelievable. Those -- I mean, the -- the hail was really as big as baseballs, really.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean, literally. You had all that moist, humid air. You had the cold front kicked through yesterday. And this is what they saw. I mean, unbelievable, this huge wall cloud kick through the area. And you saw the large hail anywhere from golf ball, yes, you just saw that. Baseball sized hail out there. So what they're really having was this huge updraft.

Let me actually show you what it looks like here on the map. We're starting to look at the radar here. Anywhere between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. yesterday, as that large super cell move through, look at all the reports of hail. Unbelievable. That's all it really took was that warm moist air and that cold front again that intersected it.

Now that cold front is still there today. We're looking at just making its way farther to the south. The only difference is we're not looking at that slight risk for severe weather. What it just really means is a place that has already seen so much rain already in the southeast is looking for more rain. In fact, it's looking for another one to two inches of rain. And many places in this area are already seven to eight inches above average. So unbelievable literally that they're still talking about this rainy summer out there. Now it is good news, though, on the other side, at least in the northeast, now that the cold front is kicking through.

I want to show you the difference in the temperatures. Last week, hard to forget, we were at 97 degrees in New York. It felt like 105, 110 at times. But now that the cold front is kicking through, look at the difference in temperatures, average temperature. We're talking about 80s out there. The most important part behind the cold front you also find drier air. So it definitely feels a lot better here as well.

So, Carol, I'm a lot happier here in New York. I don't know about you in the southeast. All that rain is probably getting to you.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes. I just go home and sleep.

PETERSONS: Yes, right.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Indra, we appreciate it.

PETERSONS: Sure.

COSTELLO: On to Wall Street now where investors are riding high thanks to Apple's latest quarterly report. Ford, Boeing, Caterpillar and PepsiCo are all set to release their quarterly results before this morning's Opening Bell. So what might that mean?

Let's check in with Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

Good morning, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And we've already heard from those companies that you listed so expect stocks to open higher, especially the Nasdaq. And you can thank Apple for that, because after the closing bell yesterday, it handed in its report card. It said its profit was down 22 percent but it beat estimates.

Here's what else it said. Apple said that it sold 31.2 million iPhones, way more than expected. Tim Cook says iPhone 5 is by far the best selling iPhone. And then, then Tim Cook said the magic words. He said we are laser focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall.

So that has Apple shares ready to pop in about 20 minutes when the Opening Bell rings. It looks like Apple shares are up about 5 percent in the premarket.

Let me first go through some of those earnings that you had mentioned. Mostly good, though Caterpillar is the bad -- is the bad one in the bunch. It lowered its full-year sales forecast, but Pepsi, Ford and Boeing all beat estimates.

Boeing actually may be the biggest surprise, given all those headache headlines that have come out about the Dreamliner, it made up for it by delivering 116 new 737s. Boeing also raised its full-year outlook.

We are watching Boeing shares up in the premarket about 2 percent -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, we'll get back to you when the bell rings. Thanks so much.

Just ahead in the NEWSROOM, new video from inside that Southwest plane as its nose gear collapses during landing at LaGuardia. We'll show you the frightening moment.

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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 16 minutes past the hour.

New video from that Southwest Airlines plane that was damaged after its nose gear collapsed on landing. Bryan Foster, he's a passenger on the plane. He recorded the entire ordeal as the plane landed at LaGuardia. Ten people on board that plane were injured.

A natural gas platform that exploded into the Gulf of Mexico is still burning this morning. Workers evacuated the platform 60 miles south of Louisiana. Officials say no one was injured. Natural gas is flowing from the well but no oil has been released.

In money news, a low credit score might hurt your chance at love. In a new survey from freecreditscore.com, 30 percent of women and 20 percent of men said they would not marry a person with a low credit score. Nearly 40 percent of respondents said they discussed credit scores within the first year of a relationship.

More allegations being leveled this morning against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. A second woman now accuses the 70-year-old of sexual harassment. She says it happened a few years ago when she was a campaign staffer for the then-congressman.

CNN's Tory Dunnan is following these new developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TORY DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, one of the biggest complaints from city council members is that this scandal is making it impossible to get anything done. So, today, calls for the mayor to resign seem to be growing stronger. But it appears he's digging in for a fight, even as another woman speaks out.

LAURA FINK, FORMER FILNER STAFFER: I think, at the time, I didn't go public with it because I was building a career in politics.

DUNNAN (voice-over): A second woman is now coming forward, accusing San Diego's mayor of inappropriate sexual behavior. Laura Fink now runs a political consulting firm, but from 2004 to 2006, she says she worked for then-Congressman Bob Filner, serving as his deputy campaign manager.

In an interview with KPBS, she described an encounter at a fundraiser some eight years ago.

FINK: One of the attendees at the party was giving me credit and saying I had done a wonderful job, and that I worked my tush off for him. I was standing next to him. And he turned to me and he said, turn around, and so I turned around and he proceeded to take his hand and pat me on my posterior and laugh and say, no, it's still there.

DUNNAN: It comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed against Filner and the city by his former communications director Irene McCormack Jackson.

IRENE MCCORMACK JACKSON, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: He had asked me to work without my underwear on.

DUNNAN: These revelations surfaced nearly two weeks ago, when a former city councilwoman held a news conference, claiming there was proof the Democratic mayor had acted in a lewd manner towards some women.

Since then, Filner has not admitted to harassment but acknowledged he needs help.

MAYOR BOB FILNER (D), SAN DIEGO, CA: I must and will change my behavior.

DUNNAN: Even within had his own party, calls are growing louder for Filner to step down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very clear he's incapable of leading this city under this cloud of allegations. It would be in the best interest of our citizens for him to go.

DUNNAN (on camera): As this remains in limbo, the city attorney is putting new rules into place. The mayor is not allowed to be alone with women at any of the city's facilities and we're told that security will be enforcing this rule. In the meantime, we've reached out for a new statement from the mayor and, carol, so far, no response.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. Tory Dunnan reporting for us this morning.

Still ahead on THE NEWSROOM: George Zimmerman, a Good Samaritan? We are expecting a news conference later today. And we could learn more about what police say he recently did and we could also meet the family that George Zimmerman rescued.

We'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: In just a few hours, we're expecting to hear from the family who got a helping hand from George Zimmerman last week. The family's SUV skidded off a road in Sanford, Florida, roll on to its side.

Police say two Good Samaritans stopped to help the couple and their children get out of that car. One of the Samaritans was George Zimmerman, who was recently found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Joining me by phone from Sanford is CNN's Victor Blackwell.

What more do we know about this family, Victor?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): What we know that they are two parents, two kids who were driving on to I-4 Wednesday, just four days after the verdict. Mark and Dana Gerstle, they're going to be speaking this morning at the office of Mark O'Mara, the defense attorney of George Zimmerman.

We're told the reason they called this press conference is because they got so many calls at their home to speak they want to have a news conference once and for all to tell what they know. There is a considerable amount of skepticism here in Sanford and central Florida about this story, Carol.

This comes from one deputy on scene who says he ID'ed George Zimmerman at the scene as one of the two men. There were eight calls to 911 after this crash. Not one of them was George Zimmerman. We know from the trial that George Zimmerman has called 911 and called police dispatchers several times but not one of the persons who called mentioned that George Zimmerman was on the scene.

Now, granted, several of them were on the highway and driving. There's a chance they did not see him. But this will be an opportunity for both his family and possibly Mark O'Mara as well to answer questions about George Zimmerman being on the scene of this crash on Wednesday.

COSTELLO: It is interesting that Mark O'Mara has called this news conference -- or is hosting this news conference rather.

BLACKWELL: It is. I spoke with a pastor here in town on Monday at a meeting and he asked specifically, is the Seminole County Sheriff's Office trying to work PR, public relations, for George Zimmerman? And this is the question that I'll put to Mark O'Mara today, is this an attempt to reboot his image?

Again, there are many people who just do not believe this story. We asked specifically to speak with the deputy who ID'ed George Zimmerman, who were told by the sheriff's office there will be no interviews. They released a statement and there will be no more from them on this.

But we'll put this out today and ask about them, this appearance of George Zimmerman, so close, less than a mile, actually, from where he shot Trayvon Martin in February of 2012.

COSTELLO: All right. Victor, we'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

Victor Blackwell reporting live from Sanford.

Up next in THE NEWSROOM: Anthony Weiner's wife standing by her husband's side after his latest sexting admission. Will New York City voters forgive Anthony Weiner again? And why did Huma decide to stand by her man? We'll talk about all of that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello. Welcome back.

I want to take you right out to Aparecida, Brazil. You see Pope Francis in his modified pope mobile. Apparently, the security risk for the pope has now been raised to high. And that was raised from medium.

You can see the pope going through the crowd right now. He's on his way to talk to people and also to hold mass for the masses in Brazil.

You might remember the other day, the pope was in a car, his driver made the wrong turn. People surrounded that vehicle. And a lot of security experts said that wasn't a good thing to happen. As you can see, people could stick their hands inside the car because Pope Francis rolled down the window.

One of the reasons the security risk has been raised today is because Pope Francis insists he still wants people to have this kind of access.

So, our Miguel Marquez is live in Rio to tell us more about this.

So, I don't know, I mean, is this wise of the pope? I mean, I admire him for doing that but there's a certain amount of fear that goes along with that.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a guy who seems to be fearless, Carol.

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