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Senate Votes; Ex-Soldiers Accused of Plot to Kill DEA Agent; NSA Worker's Spied; Global Warming Report; Bleacher Report

Aired September 27, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon.

We're three days and 10 hours away from a possible shutdown of the federal government. And just moments ago, the Senate voted to strip out an amendment defunding Obamacare and passed a bill to fund government operations through mid-November. Now it goes to the House of Representatives.

Do you know what a shutdown could mean? I'm going to tell you. Essential stuff, like air traffic control, national security, and Social Security checks, will be just fine. But hundreds of thousands of federal workers face furloughs -- national parks and museums, Yosemite and the Smithsonian will close. Visas, passports and gun permits, well, they will be on hold. Need Small Business Administration approval for a loan to open a shop? You're going to have to wait on that. And all that could come to a screeching halt after Monday. Right now, Congress appears set to play ping-pong with a bill that could keep everything running.

I want to get to our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash on Capitol Hill, as well as our senior White House correspondent Brianna Keilar is at the White House for us.

Dana, I'm going to start with you. I read a whole bunch of stuff there. The Senate just voted to strip language defunding Obamacare from the bill to fund the government. So what happens when they send this bill back to the House of Representatives?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's on its way as we speak. They just formally passed the bill, keeping the government open for about another month and a half, until November 15th. And the answer to what happens next is anybody's guess right now. and that is what makes this so fluid, and, frankly, a little bit frustrating for a lot of people up here, never mind the people around the country watching.

The reason it is so up in the air is because House Republican leaders are frankly trying to figure out what to do next. There is a lot of pressure from within the Republican caucus, this is the caucus that voted initially to defund Obamacare as part of this spending bill, not to give up, to keep on fighting. The issue for Republican leaders is that they don't know yet how to translate that into legislation. What does that mean to fight? Does it mean maybe they just put on something to, for example, take away a tax cut for -- excuse me, a new tax on medical devices? That's part of Obamacare. Does it mean messing with the kind of health care that members of Congress and their staff get as part of Obamacare? Those are some of the options that they're discussing.

But as we speak, Senate Democrats are having a press conference right below me in the Capitol saying, don't even think about it, House Republicans. If you send us anything that is different from what we just passed, anything that has an issue in it beyond funding the government, we're not going to do it. So it is not only ping-pong, it is really - I think it's more hot potato that ping-pong. And the House isn't even going to come back in to have a meeting to talk about this, at least Republicans, until noon tomorrow, Don.

LEMON: Brianna, I'm going to get to you in just a second, but one more question for you, Dana.

We just saw that really interesting interview with Michele Bachmann and our very own Wolf Blitzer. How is that playing on Capitol Hill? Because it's not all Republicans, but it's some who are hard-liners, like Michele Bachmann, who feel the same way about this bill. How is that playing out? What do they think of that?

BASH: It's very divisive. And what Michele Bachmann is arguing for is what Ted Cruz argues for. And that is why what you saw all week long was some -- something that we don't see very often, which is open Republican warfare. Republican on Republican warfare. And the vote - the first vote of the day in the Senate, which was really the telltale sign of this issue, illustrated it. And that is, only 19 -- including Ted Cruz. I guess 18 other Republicans voted with him, which means the majority of the Republican caucus in the Senate defied Ted Cruz's wishes to keep the fight going and to defund Obamacare on top of this spending bill despite the fact that Democrats who run the Senate weren't going to allow it.

LEMON: All right. And again, if you're just tuning in, the Senate just voted to strip out an amendment defunding Obamacare and pass a bill to keep the government open at least until mid-November.

Brianna Keilar now at the White House. The Obama administration more focused on the next even bigger fight over the debt ceiling, correct?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually they're focused very much on both, Don. They're stressing at this point, obviously, that a government shutdown, just because maybe when you look at how much economic damage it would do compared to the debt ceiling, it's sort of by far the lesser of the two evils. They say it's still very bad for the economy. And that's the message that we'll continue to hear out of the White House.

It would be, I think, not out of the realm of normality for President Obama to make some sort of -- maybe not necessarily come out and make a statement, but I think we might be hearing some reaction from the White House or from the president in response to this vote that's come out of the Senate. Obviously, the White House really wants to kind of press the House and keep the pressure on Speaker John Boehner. We've been hearing from officials here who say, you know, if the speaker just put a clean funding bill on the House floor, it would likely pass. Of course, that's something that would require a lot of Democratic votes. It's not something, as you've heard Dana report, the speaker would like to do. But the White House is saying the will is there. That's what Republicans should just go ahead and do.

Of course they are focused on the ramifications of what would happen of reaching the debt ceiling, Don. But at the same time, the line from President Obama has been absolutely he is not negotiating. That there's going to be absolutely no discussion over it.

Now, we've heard from House Republicans, from the speaker, he said, well, you know that's not how things work. But the White House is insistent that that's how they're going to do this. Officials here saying that they have negotiated before and now they feel like Republicans are making such ridiculous, in their opinion, requests, really to kind of make a choice between defaulting or delaying the implementation of Obamacare, neither of which they feel is something that should be done, and so they just say, you know what, we're not even going to negotiate.

And it's hard to think, Don, that ultimately, if this were to move and the speaker didn't bluff and we were heading towards a default, that at some point the White House wouldn't step in. But at this point, they're just not even going to discuss it.

LEMON: Brianna Keilar at the White House and our Dana Bash on Capitol Hill as well. Thanks to both of you. Stand by. We'll get back to you.

We want to hear your health care stories and how you feel about the new health care law. Make sure you go to ireport.com, cnnireport.com, and tell us your personal story.

We're just getting this. This is just in to CNN. The plot to kill a U.S. drug enforcement agent and an informant, foiled. And now we know who allegedly was behind the horrifying murder plan. Two former American soldiers, one of them nicknamed Rambo, along with a German ex-soldier, want you to take a look at how the U.S. attorney in this case sums up the plot. He says, "the bone-chilling allegations in today's indictment read like they were ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. The charges tell a tale of an international band of mercenary marksmen who enlisted their elite military training to serve as hired guns for evil." The murder plot began when a law enforcement sting interrupted their elaborate plan to protest a shipment of cocaine into the United States. Our justice reporter Evan Perez live now for us in Washington.

Evan, you know, you got ahold of the indictment. So what exactly are these ex-soldiers charged with?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're charged with conspiracy to kill a federal agent, to try to import cocaine into the United States. But as you described just now, this indictment reads like a spy novel. The leader of this plot, whose name is Joseph Hunter, he's the one that prosecutors say went by the nickname Rambo. They say he's been a contract killer since he left the U.S. military in 2004. He was a trained sniper instructor, so he knew what he was doing. And you had a couple of other -- four other soldiers, one of them a U.S. military, a couple of them from Germany, one from Poland. And now what the plot that the prosecutors have described is one in which they were essentially going to kill a DEA agent and what they thought was an informant for the DEA to try to stop - to try to stop the undermining of a drug trafficking organization.

LEMON: Evan, how far along were they able to get with this plan? How far along were they with this plan?

PEREZ: Well, this was a sting. This was something that the DEA set up with an informant. They apparently were on to Hunter. And so they decided to set up this very elaborate plot whereby they were going to set up a killing of an agent in Liberia. So they were -- this was about to happen. This was -- the entire thing was set up to go down now. A couple of these guys were arrested in Liberia in the last couple of days. Hunter was arrested in Thailand and he's on his way to New York where he's going to face charges. It's -- the details are just really chilling, as you said, Don.

LEMON: Evan Perez in Washington, we appreciate your reporting.

On now to the NSA workers, they (ph) snooped on lovers, spouses, even people they had a crush on. They used surveillance powers given to them to protect the American homeland from terrorists. Does that sound familiar? Like an old movie script, right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "TRUE LIES": OK, I got all the usual stuff here. I got a telemetry burst transmitter. I've got a GPS tracker. I've got an audio transmitter and a power supply. And I've got it sewn into the lining here. And --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Arnold Schwarzenegger played a spy snooping on his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, in 1994's "True Lies."

So here's what we know about the real life NSA workers spying on love interests. In one case, a female employee tracked a phone number she found in her husband's cell phone contacts because she believed hubby was being unfaithful. In another case, a male worker searched six e- mail addresses belonging to his ex-girlfriend. Still another case, a male worker listened to conversation on nine phone numbers belonging to women for no valid reason.

I want to bring in now CNN's legal analyst Danny Cevallos.

Danny, the NSA's international watchdog group, they found at least 12 of these incidents of abuse. Apparently no one was ever charged. What's your reaction to this?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: My reaction is, I'm surprised it's only 12. Look, Don, with these questions, we have to ask, who watches the watchmen? Because we have to give humans some access, some authority, if we want to have them maintain the power to look through our e-mails, phones, whatever. But once we do that, invariably, humans are human. They're going to give in to whatever their needs and desires are. And this is going to happen from time to time. It happens, as it is now, on a lower level with what we call the NCIC. That's the police database, the FBI database, that any policeman in their squad car can access. It's similar. I mean they -- it's human activated and they often -- not often, I shouldn't say that, but from time to time they use them to look up things about girlfriends or wives or whatever.

LEMON: When you're looking at the number of workers, the number of people who have worked for the NSA over the years and you look at this percentage wise, is this something that you think is worrisome (ph)? It's not that you're making excuse. You said this is all human behavior. It does happen. But does this -

CEVALLOS: It does. What's even more surprising is that it appears most of these - these incidents are self-reported. Maybe sometimes even during a lie detector test.

LEMON: Right.

CEVALLOS: So this is not something that's being tracked with some formula or some other algorithm. These incidents may only be human, self-reporting, which is kind of scary when you think that there may be a lot more out there.

LEMON: Yes, it takes cyber stalking, that term, to a whole new level, doesn't it?

CEVALLOS: It sure does.

LEMON: Thank you very much, Danny. We appreciate that.

Coming up, a teenager is found hanging in a sex game gone terribly wrong. I'm going to speak live with his father who's being very open about his message to other parents.

Plus, a troubling new reports suggests that in 30 years, the next 30 years, parts of the East Coast will need to be evacuated because of global warming. Find out who's at risk.

And, Samuel L. Jackson tells President Obama, stop using slang and start acting presidential. Does he have a point or is he wrong? We're going to discuss coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A new global report is the latest proof behind these pictures -- ice melting, glaciers shrinking as ocean temperatures rise. Climate change is happening according to 2,500 pages from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. First part of the report, it just came out today. Nearly 1,000 researchers back it up, and just as many vetted this report. And their big conclusions, they are 95 percent confident humans are causing the earth to heat up in the last 50 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SECRETARY-GENERAL MICHEL JARRAUD, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: The decade 2001-2010 was the warmest on record, continuing the trend of the - of global warming. More natural - more temperature record were broken than in any other previous decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's talk about this now with Dan Vergano. He's a senior science editor at nationalgeographic.com.

Dan, welcome. You know, I want to start with this interview from a geologist science guy from Miami talking about what the rising ocean waters will do. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAROLD WANLESS, DEPT. OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, UNIV. OF MIAMI: By the mid part of the century, 2050, 2060, most of the barrier islands in the world are going to have to be evacuated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He's talking to our Chad Myers there, our meteorologist here at CNN.

So explain this timeline. Why by midcentury?

DAN VERGANO, SR. SCIENCE EDITOR, NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM: Well, these are the low-lying places in the world where, you know, three feet of sea rise is, you know, covering half the island. Even a foot of sea level rise is a threat to these sort of low-lying places. That one you might see in locations like, you know, the keys, barrier islands, Louisiana River Delta, and so forth. Even a foot of sea level rise where you only have seven feet of island, that's a lot.

LEMON: So, you know, this global warming will cause fewer cold nights and days? Is that accurate, according to this report?

VERGANO: Yes, it already has. They are basically measuring temperature records and seeing in the last 50 years that we have more warm nights, fewer cold nights, fewer, you know, cold days, and more things like heat waves. Those are the sort of broad temperature effects that can already be seen and we would expect to accelerate as things get warmer.

LEMON: So, Dan, you know, we have the climate change deniers, right, and people on the other side who say they are going to think that, you know, this report is biased, but do you think this changes any minds?

VERGANO: It depends on who you're talking to. There's as many different kind of climate naysayers as there are, you know, kinds of foods. There's all kinds. The debate really among the naysayers is that, yes, it's happening, but it's not going to be so bad, not so much that it's not happening. It won't change minds. You know when you're -- that's how you make a living, you aren't going to change your mind. But what you might hope is that people who are sort of in the middle are going to hear this message that scientists say they're more certain than ever and they're going to think, well, you know, maybe it's time to take it more seriously.

LEMON: It's interesting that you say, if that's how you make a living, then you're not going to change your mind. Very wise words there.

What does this report say about prevention, about stopping climate change?

VERGANO: Basically we need to cut emissions of greenhouse gases is the simplest step. The report itself isn't the mitigation report, the part where we talk about fixes. That comes later next year. This is basically just diagnostic of how things are right now, but it does look into the future and say, sure, as long as emissions go up, then things get hotter and we'll see more of the effects like the ones we're seeing here.

LEMON: Dan Vergano, thank you very much. Appreciate your expertise, sir.

VERGANO: You bet.

LEMON: All right, still ahead here on CNN, actor Samuel L. Jackson calls out the president. Find out why Jackson wants to school Obama on his grammar. And the tough love doesn't end there.

But first, this. An emotional night at Yankee Stadium. New York fans said good-bye to the greatest closer to ever play the game. Yankee greats Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte surprise Mariano Rivera when they came out to the mound to escort him to the dugout. It was Rivera's final home game in New York after an amazing 19-year career and it couldn't have been more emotional.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Are you ready for some football? Well, in Great Britain, that is? The Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers will kick off in London on Sunday. And we don't know who will win, but we do know both teams will need a lesson in British trivia. CNN's Andy Scholes has more in our "Bleacher Report."

Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, "BLEACHER REPORT": Hey, Don.

Well, the NFL first started putting on a yearly game in London back in 2007. Before the season, the Vikings and Steelers looked like a great matchup. Well, both teams are 0-3 and Sunday's game is pretty much a must-win for both squads. The players have to be focused on the task at hand, but all work and no play isn't good for anyone. CNN's Amanda Davis (ph) had a chance to ask some tough questions to a few of the Vikings players, but not necessarily all about football.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you name the newest member of the royal family?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um, yes, I think his name is Alex.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, you really have to ask me that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George. I knew that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I read that in the latest "US Weekly." No, not really.

DAVIS: If I said Fergie to you, who would that be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a pop star.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know she sang the song "My Humps."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I know she's part of the royal family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The singer.

DAVIS: What's Big Ben?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The clock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No idea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't that the clock.

DAVIS: Actually the bell, I think strictly, but, yes --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the clock, (INAUDIBLE), right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate these quizzes. They make people like me just look like a complete idiot.

DAVIS: Burger and fries or fish and chips?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burger and fries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burger and fries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fish and chips.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fish and chips.

DAVIS: James Bond's code name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 007.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 007.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 007. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 007.

DAVIS: 007's code name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea.

DAVIS: Oh, 007's code name. That's me who's got it wrong. James Bond's code name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Thanks to Amanda Davis for that.

You know, records aside, this game should draw a good crowd, as always. Kickoff from across the pond is at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Sunday afternoon.

Well, that will do it for your "Bleacher Report."

Don, back to you.

LEMON: All right, Andy Scholes, thank you very much for that.

The ring leaders reportedly behind a wild house party inside retired NFL lineman Brian Holloway's home have surrenders to police. And authorities arrested six young people they say organized a massive bash last month inside Holloway's upstate New York home. Well, pictures of the party and the massive damage that occurred showed up immediately on Twitter. When Holloway saw it, he started a viral campaign to catch the culprits. One parent who knows Holloway broke down in tears asking for him to have mercy on her son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you. God bless you. God bless -

BRIAN HOLLOWAY, HOMEOWNER/RETIRED NFL PLAYER: This is what I don't understand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't understand it all myself.

HOLLOWAY: Hey, listen - listen to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But all I know is my son is my life.

HOLLOWAY: Listen to me. We love Seth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.

HOLLOWAY: We took him in our house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. I don't understand.

HOLLOWAY: When he didn't have a place to live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just - HOLLOWAY: He stayed with us.

And you can be mad at me, but you promise me I'm not going to bury your -- him. Promise me. Promise -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I promise you that I'll go first (ph).

HOLLOWAY: I'm going to go be with -- I'm going to go be with my family, OK. But look at me. Promise me I'm not going to bury him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not -- no, no.

HOLLOWAY: OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just -- because I couldn't go through it.

HOLLOWAY: OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been through too much.

HOLLOWAY: Well, give me a hug, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's my baby.

HOLLOWAY: I know. I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the sheriff says there will be hundreds more arrests. Holloway says his house sustained more than $20,000 in damage.

Samuel L. Jackson says President Obama needs to get scary and start being presidential. Stop using slang, the actor says. Does Jackson have a point or is he completely off base? We're going to debate this next.

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