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Questions About Obamacare; Piers Morgan Interviews Bill Clinton; Scotty McCreery Partners With MLB to Help Kids; Marissa Mayer Explains Photo-shoot; Coke Kilos Wash Up in Alabama

Aired September 25, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So then there's this, though, too. People were worried that, you know, because of Obamacare, that many companies would be getting rid of health care for their employees altogether.

What do you know about that?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a real fear for a lot of people out there, so let's take a look at claim number two. Companies are in the business of cutting benefits because of Obamacare.

Several very large companies are cutting some health care benefits, and they have cited Obamacare as the reason, UPS, Delta, and the University of Virginia, for example.

By cuts, I mean things like, if you are covered by your company and your spouse is covered by your company's insurance, but he or she could be covered by insurance at his or her own office, your employer might say, OK, that's how it has to be. Your spouse is now out of our system.

The problem with this claim is that other factors are also raising health care costs rapidly, so many companies have been doing this sort of thing anyway as they've tried to bring down health care costs.

Obamacare is almost certainly and undeniably speeding up that process.

So it's fair for companies to say it is a cause, but in most cases, it does not seem to be the only cause for this trend, Brooke.

We'll be going through a lot more of these fact checks in the next few days, I hope, and clearing up a lot more of these puzzling questions.

BALDWIN: I'm sure you will be. Tom Foreman, we'll be looking forward to it. Thank you very much. We're ready for that, coming on Monday.

Meantime, high school coaches, you know, a good coach teaches you not just how to play the game, but also lessons in life, valuable lessons.

A lot of times, though, coaches are accused of putting wins above all else.

But one coach took a stand. You know what he did? He suspended his entire football team because of bad character before the big game, homecoming. We're going to talk to the school's athletic director about this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Maintaining a spot on the football team at one Utah high school isn't about just scoring touchdowns, but showing good character.

This is what the players of Union High in Roosevelt are learning after the coach suspended the entire team, all 80 guys.

Why? Bad behavior. This is according to our Salt Lake City TV affiliate, KSL, but the turning point was word that some of these players cyber-bullied a student.

So this coach, Matt Labrum, suspended all 80 players who were required to do off-field services to get back on the team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LABRUM, UNION HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH: Just felt like everything was going in a direction that we didn't want our young men going, so we felt like we needed to make a stand.

And I think it's going to bring our team closer. I think we're going to be more accountable, not only for ourselves, but for our buddy next to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was the coach. Tonight is the night to find out if these different players get the jersey, get the black and gold jerseys back.

So joining me by phone is the school's athletic director and high school vice principal, Mike Ross.

So, Mike, talk to me about the last couple of days. Tonight is the night the players learn if they're back on the team. How have they been faring so far?

MIKE ROSS, VICE PRINCIPAL AND ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, UNION HIGH SCHOOL (via telephone): Well, you know, of course, with a decision like this, you're a little bit worried about how things are going to be perceived and how the community, especially our local community and our parents and our high school student body, kind of react, and it's been a great experience for everyone.

And we've just been excited with the positive feedback that we've received and the way that the kids have handled it.

I tell you, I'm just so impressed with our coaches and our coaching staff. And it's not just the football coaches. It's our entire faculty.

We're trying to change the culture here at our school, and it's been a great experience, so we're excited.

BALDWIN: We're looking at video that we've just turned around. I don't know how these young guys felt initially when they had their jerseys taken.

You know, watching them, they've done everything from pick weeds to do service projects for their parents to try to earn the spot back on the team.

When did you, Mike, hear that this mass suspension would be coming down?

ROSS (via telephone): Well, the night before -- or the morning, Thursday morning, last week, coach labrum said that his coaching staff had met and they were not pleased with the way things were going, and they wanted to get the attention of the boys and remind them that while football is awesome, and it's great to wear that black and gold jersey on Friday before the game at school and stuff, you know, there are more important things.

He's told me that we're trying to raise young men to be fathers and good husbands, and coaches for their kids, and the community, and be positive contributors to our community.

And he said that's more important to me than these games. And he said, I just don't feel good about the way things are going.

But, you know, when the kids learned that their jerseys were being taken from them, you know, it was a shock to them, I think. I don't think that they totally realized what was happening.

And, as I remember those days in my high school years, you know, that was a big thing. And for them to react this way and to accept some of the things that the coaches are requiring of them, I've been just impressed with our kids.

And, you know, you mentioned some of the issues we're dealing with, and we want to make sure that everyone understands that we have great kids here at union high school.

We love our kids. They're working hard in the classroom and not on the field or court, and so these are issues, I bet that are being dealt with in every high school across the country, and we're just excited the way they have responded.

BALDWIN: I know, many of my favorite coaches were those who really helped off the field. Final question, though, Mike, give us a clue.

Are these 80 guys -- are they going to be joining the team tonight?

ROSS (via telephone): You know, I have every confidence they will. And just to make a quick correction, it was just the sophomores through seniors, so about 50 young men that they did that.

The freshman team, they were not included in this. They've been doing some great things and so we let them go ahead and practice. BALDWIN: Fifty players. You think they're going to get the jerseys back?

ROSS (via telephone): Yes.

BALDWIN: All right, Mike Ross, thank you.

ROSS (via telephone): Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, unique perspective on everything from Iran to a government shutdown to the 2016 presidential race, including who Bill Clinton thinks would make a better president, his wife or his daughter.

We're going to talk about all this live with Piers Morgan, about his one-on-one with the former president. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is the explosive admission from Iran's new leader that, yes, the holocaust happened. It has taken Iran nearly 70 years to acknowledge this, but CNN has gotten the admission from Hassan Rouhani that it did, in fact, happen.

And within hours in an exclusive interview with CNN, President Bill Clinton weighed in, saying it says a lot, that this admission classifies the Iran leader as a moderate.

Watch him with Piers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR, "PIERS MORGAN LIVE": President Obama has to, at the moment, trust three people who, as they would say in "Downton Abbey," you wouldn't necessarily trust with the family silver, President Assad, Vladimir Putin, and President Rouhani.

Let's start with Iran because that's always a big talking point at the CGI. Christiane Amanpour for CNN yesterday interviewed President Rouhani, and he, compared to the interview that I did with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, struck a much more conciliatory tone, particularly in the fact that he basically admitted there had been a Holocaust, which is certainly nothing that Ahmadinejad would ever admit to.

What did you make of that? How important is that kind of concession? And do you see a real shift there in the relationship with America? How much do you trust him?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, first of all, I think it's an interesting commentary on the world in which we are living that admitting that the holocaust occurred qualifies as being a moderate.

MORGAN: Right.

CLINTON: I mean, in other words, if you get into the fact-based world, there's something to it. At least we can have something to talk about.

I was hoping, and I think the president was, that the opening of the U.N. would give them a chance to, you know, maybe even do more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's get some reaction from the interviewer himself, Piers Morgan, just back from the interview.

I want to run through bits of sound, but your reaction to that comment from the former president.

MORGAN: Well, it was brilliantly Clinton-esque. It cut right to the point, really, which is it's a pretty extraordinary state of affairs when the president of Iran says there may have been a holocaust and we treat this as news.

But, of course, the reason it's big news and the reason Christiane Amanpour did so well as to get that revelation out of President Rouhani is precisely because his predecessor, President Ahmadinejad, who I interviewed this time last year at the UNGA, refused to admit there had been a holocaust, refused to admit there had been anything of that nature.

So it is a move, and the question the becomes, what does it mean? Should we now look at this new Iranian president in a different light?

And I think president Clinton was right to say, look -- and he went on to say about other leaders, and we'll come to this, that you don't have to completely trust all these people to do business with them

And I thought that was a very sensible way of looking at it, too.

BALDWIN: Speaking of leaders, I loved this question. I loved the audience reaction when you said, hey, Mr. President, who would make a better president one day, your wife or your daughter?

Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Who do you think might make the better president, your wife or your daughter?

CLINTON: The day after tomorrow, my wife because she's had more experience; over the long run, Chelsea. She knows more than we do about everything.

MORGAN: I met your wife for the first time, and your daughter today, actually. She looked fantastic. She looks completely reinvigorated.

She seemed absolutely on fire with ideas and dynamism and so on, and it just screamed to me one thing, I'm running.

Can you put us all out of our misery?

CLINTON: No. But it should have screamed to you something else. Real life is a healthier existence than politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, obviously, it's a question he gets all the time. I appreciate the humor.

MORGAN: Well, I was thinking about how to phrase the question because it is the question he's asked and they're asked all the time.

And, actually, having met both Hillary and Chelsea for the first time today, actually, where I actually got to talk to them, and having moderated two panels with Chelsea that we're going to air tomorrow night, Chelsea is like a mini-Hillary.

I mean, she's super bright, very warm, very on point, was unfazed by anything I threw at her, very political in a lot of the answers she gave.

And I think to a very high-powered influential audience of some 300 people, they all went away thinking the same thing that I did, which is, yes, there may well be a chance of a first Clinton female president, but it may not be the one we think it is.

BALDWIN: Who knows?

Meantime, Piers Morgan, you stay in the chair because we're going to talk on the other side of the break because you got bill Clinton to respond to this impression by U2 front man Bono.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, SINGER: But together, you know, we did this "drop-the-debt" thing and --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It's amazing.

Bill Clinton returned the favor with you sitting there.

Stick around. You have to see this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK, Piers Morgan, we know that U2 did a pretty uncanny impersonation of former President Bill Clinton, who you just interviewed today.

What could be better than that? You, getting him to turn the tables, getting Bill Clinton to try to do Bono.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO: He walked into the Oval Office, and actually I thought he was a member of his own road crew. He wasn't really dressed right. Actually I felt like the rock star on that occasion.

But together, you know, we did this "drop-the-debt" thing. And, my God, there's 51 million children going to school in Africa because of the "drop-the-debt" deal. That's pretty good, isn't that right?

MORGAN: What was your reaction when you heard Bono pretending to be you?

CLINTON: It was pretty good. You know, we've been friends a long time, and it was not first time he's made fun of me. But he's getting better at it.

MORGAN: Your daughter just informed me, in fact, all of us, that you do a pretty good Bono impression. This is your chance, Mr. President.

CLINTON: Well, I'm Irish, and we Irish, we can imitate anybody. But alas, I have been singing so long and screaming so loud at these concerts that I'm hoarse, so I got to be careful with my voice.

That's why all my charities only have three-letter names.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's awesome, but I have to give to it Bono.

What do you think?

MORGAN: I think Bono was pretty masterful, yeah. I think Bill Clinton gave it his best stab back, but Bono's American accent is a little better than the President's Irish accent. I speak as an Irishman.

BALDWIN: Piers Morgan, we will be watching you and Bill Clinton, the first bit of this interview. You mentioned Chelsea is tomorrow night. But tonight, 9:00 Eastern.

Piers Morgan, thank you.

MORGAN: Thanks, Brooke. Take care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: An "American Idol" winner is partnering with Major League Baseball to help kids develop skills and their minds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTY MCCREERY, SINGER: I could have never imagined or prepared for what would happen to me.

At 17, I was planning on just being your average high school student then all of a sudden, "Idol" happened.

I love the fact that nowadays kids get to look up to me. I love that responsibility and I embrace it.

And it seems like the stories we hear on the news are child stars going crazy. So I want to be the opposite of that.

You know, right off the gate, we've had opportunities to do different things for charities. I grew up having two loves in life, baseball and music.

So the RBI program and the MLB, it just seemed like a natural fit for me, and it's revitalizing baseball in the inner city.

When I was growing up I learned a lot of my biggest life lessons from playing ball, whether it was perseverance, or whether it's just competition, or just hard work, you know, teamwork.

It was my best memories made there, so just making sure those kids get the same opportunities.

And I can relate to these kids, more so than just handing them money, I can talk to them about what they're doing and the experiences they're sharing, and kind of share my stories with them.

So it is cool to have a kind of connection there with these kids.

I'm Scotty McCreery, and together we can make an impact on America's children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer used to making Wall Street headlines. Her highly publicized comments about gender issues and women in the workplace have definitely put her in the spotlight, and not always favorably.

And now the social media executive is defending herself over that photo shoot from her in "Vogue" magazine.

We talked about this. It was the September issue, included this two- page spread of this exec.

And so she was posing, as you see, upside down in this chaise lounge, hair fanned out, holding a tablet featuring an image of her face.

That photo, as well as the profile article, touched off another controversy.

So now here with Mayers' response to all of the fuss is CNN's Alison Kosik. What's she saying?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, what Marissa Mayer did was she had this interview with Charlie Rose.

This is the first in-depth interview that she's had since becoming Yahoo!'s CEO, but, as you can imagine, more interesting to many people than what's going on with Yahoo! is this picture.

So Charlie Rose got the inside scoop. And what she says is the photographer, who was taking these pictures, was actually taking these sort of prim-and-proper lady-like poses of her. And then he stopped and said, wait a minute. This is not going to work at all. Would you try to kind of going upside down?

So as a fashion magazine, I'm thinking, you know, "Vogue" probably doesn't want run-of-the-mill headshots. So Mayers said she hesitated, asked if it would look good, and the photographer said not to worry.

Now if you're wondering about that dress, she picked that blue Michael Kors dress.

She was given the option of going black or blue. She said she doesn't wear black.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: Well, I think she looks lovely, but I know many people were all a fuss over the --

KOSIK: I think you can be sexy and smart and not have an issue with it.

BALDWIN: Amen, sister.

Alison Kosik, thank you.

Before we go, let me talk about this unlikely find washing up along the Alabama coast.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBBIE WILLIAMS, GULF SHORES, ALABAMA: You know you can find just about anything on the beaches of Baldwin County, but lately a lot more than sand and seashells have been washing up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was just the way it was packaged.

WILLIAMS: Two-point-two pounds of trouble, all tightly bundled, just sticking out of the sand.

SERGEANT JASON WOODRUFF, GULF SHORES POLICE: Two couples out walking on the beach down near the saltwater pavilion and they just walked up on what they suspected to be a kilo of cocaine, and that turned out to be -- that's what it was.

WILLIAMS: Wrapped in layers of plastic, garbage bags, and inner tube- type material, it's the second kilo of cocaine to wash up in the Gulf Shore's area this year.

But it's not the only one this week. Back on the beach and a little further west, some beachgoers discovered another kilo of cocaine washing ashore near Morgan Trace.

MAJOR ANTHONY LOWERY, BALDWIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: I don't think it's coincidental that Gulf Shores just recovered one, too. WILLIAMS: Major Anthony Lowery believes the two kilos are connected.

LOWERY: This cocaine wasn't grown in Williams Swamp or somewhere like this.

This got here because of an organized criminal element probably out of south America and, you know, it is real that drugs are here.

WILLIAMS: Finding where it came from will be nearly impossible.

LOWERY: It's important to see if there is anything we can do to find more cocaine or prevent this from coming into Baldwin County.

WILLIAMS: Forensic testing will try and determine the purity and any other identifying features of the drug.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Can you imagine seeing that rolling up on the beach?

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.