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Federal Government Shutdown; Netanyahu Addresses UNGA; Obamacare Starts with Glitches; Man Arrested for Road Rage in New York; Man Arrested for Road Rage in Kentucky; Colorado Rock Slide Kills Five, One Survives
Aired October 01, 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: We know the latest reporting is that the House Republicans are proposing this piecemeal bill to fund parts of the government.
I talked to -- I want to play some sound. I talked to a moderate Republican. I talked to presidential candidate Jon Huntsman last hour. I asked him not about this particular fight, but about that fight, this upcoming fight, October 17th, and the possibility of the government running out of money to pay its bills.
This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON HUNTSMAN, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You think the government shutdown is a big deal, and we're going to hurt every day this goes on economically.
The debt ceiling is a thermonuclear explosion compared to a hand grenade. That's when we wake up October 17th and find the Treasury has $30 billion. We have an interest payment due of $29 billion shortly thereafter and debt rollover the next month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Emily, do you think this small faction that the president continues to refer to, you know, this group of Ted Cruz and company, do you think they will lead another fight come debt ceiling time?
EMILY MILLER, SENIOR EDITOR, "WASHINGTON TIMES": Well, to clarify, small faction is a majority of the House of Representatives. It's all of the Senate Republicans. It's not a small faction. It's the majority of Republicans, Congress.
Yes, I mean, this is going to be -- this spending -- this fight right now is not about spending. What's holding it up is Obamacare.
This is about the American people saying we're not being listened to. We've elected you to cut spending, to bring down the deficit, to stop this Obamacare, and you're not doing anything.
The Republicans here are trying to say, we're listening, we're doing what we can with the limited power and control that we have over this government to do those things.
BALDWIN: Ben, what do you think? You've been around the block.
BEN STEIN, AUTHOR, ECONOMIST: I think we've got to -- look, this is a flight from responsibility on the part of the Republican Party, which is extremely embarrassing to a person that's been a Republican probably for longer than both of your lives put together.
It is not allowed to blow up the government in order to change a law. If we want to change a law, let's try to get Republicans elected in the next election cycle and get the law revised.
But let's not bring down the house on top of us like Sampson pulling down the pillars. This is just nuts.
It's just nuts to endanger the national defense, endanger the economic security of older Americans. What about the federal workers?
Why on earth should the federal workers be suffering? They're hard working men and women. They're not just parasites. They're hard working men and women. Why are they being tortured over this?
MILLER: Every time we have one of these shutdowns, and obviously we haven't had one in 17 years, they always go back and completely fund everything.
So everybody gets paid in full. Nobody loses money in the end.
STEIN: Then why do it in the first place?
MILLER: Because it's all the control they have to try to stop -- to avert Obamacare from hitting today. It's all they can do.
STEIN: Well, all the control a child in a playground has is to throw sand in the other child's face.
I mean, this is just not responsible behavior. This is not the Republican Party --
MILLER: But you also have to remember, Ben --
STEIN: Do you think for a minute that Dwight Eisenhower would have approved of this?
MILLER: Ben, I don't know what Dwight Eisenhower would do, but I will say the Republicans have sent over five bills to the Senate, and they're the ones who have rejected them, five.
And the president --
STEIN: But they're bills that are nonsense.
MILLER: They're not. One of them is very reasonable, to say, let's not -- let's just put off the medical device tax. That's completely reasonable. That is something that could have been a negotiated middle ground there. And again -- I mean, this morning, the House sent over a bill to go to conference and negotiate.
STEIN: The bills aren't even passed. Emily, I respect you very much, and I love "The Washington times" a lot, but with the greatest respect, the bills already been passed and approved by the Supreme Court.
It's done, garnish, it's done.
MILLER: I'm just talking about the spending bills.
STEIN: But it's already done.
BALDWIN: All right. I hear both of you. I'm so glad we are having this exchange because I think a lot of Americans represent what Emily thinks and, Ben Stein, what you think.
Hopefully all the money comes back, Emily, as you pointed out, what happened 17 years ago.
But, really, I think the big question, a lot of people agree with me, is not what happens this very moment, but what happens 16 days from now because that could be, to quote Jon Huntsman, a thermonuclear explosion when it comes to the economy.
STEIN: And he could be our next president.
BALDWIN: Emily Miller and Ben Stein, thank you both very much. I appreciate both of your perspectives.
Coming up next --
MILLER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: -- switching gears, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking today at the United Nations, he did not mince words when talking about this new president of Iran calling him, once again, "a wolf in sheep's clothing."
And he didn't stop there. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Israel's prime minister says he cannot trust Iran and its new president, Benjamin Netanyahu speaking today, addressing the United Nations just a short time ago.
He said the only way to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions is to combine tough sanctions with a credible military threat.
The prime minister called Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a loyal servant of the regime. He urged leaders not to be duped by his moderate tone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Now, I know Rouhani doesn't sound like Ahmadinejad.
But when it comes to Iran's nuclear weapons program, the only difference between them is this. Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf's clothing. Rouhani is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Iran is calling Netanyahu's speech, quote, "extremely inflammatory," an Iranian envoy saying the accusations are unfounded.
Coming up, on this first day that Obamacare goes live on the Web, many people are having a tough time logging in.
And so how should this be working for you? Elizabeth Cohen walked through the process herself. She will join me live to tell me about it. That's later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: While the federal government is shut down because of this impasse over Obamacare, a critical part of the health insurance law is, in fact, opening today.
Millions of uninsured Americans are going online. This is healthcare.gov, hoping to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges.
But the websites have been experiencing technical glitches. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the medical team have been trying to log in and, thus far, unsuccessfully.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Unsuccessful in the state of Georgia. I pretended like I was really doing it. We were here in Atlanta.
So you get this screen first. So I clicked apply now. Let me show you what we got. Please wait. Now, it says thanks for your patience.
I was patient. In about five minutes, I did get to a screen where you could try to create a log-in, which is the first step.
Let me show you what happened. When you try to create an account, you have to do these security questions. You've seen them other places.
When you do it, it says no options. Like, I can't even get to the questions. It just says no options. You can't create an account without putting in these questions.
BALDWIN: OK.
COHEN: So I was -- I kind of hit a wall. I tried this several times today.
BALDWIN: So you guys hit a wall. We're here in Georgia. What about other states? Similar issues?
COHEN: The CNN Medical Team branched out. We tried in about 20 different state states.
In 12 of them we hit glitches. Sometimes it made it impossible to sign up. There were error messages or that annoying kind of twirly thing.
BALDWIN: I hate the twirly thing.
COHEN: Hate it, hate it. In many cases, you just couldn't sign up.
BALDWIN: President Obama, he addressed this, speaking at the White House earlier, sort of likening it to glitches with Apple. This was the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like every new law, every new product rollout, there are going to be some glitches in the signup process along the way that we will fix.
I've been saying this from the start. For example, we found out that there have been times this morning where the site's been running more slowly than it normally will.
The reason is because more than 1 million people visited healthcare.gov before 7:00 in the morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: He had said, you know, issues with iPhone when it first rolled out, you know, but this isn't necessarily like the iPhone.
COHEN: Right. My iOS-7 works. It works. This, I couldn't even sign up.
Some states we tried, we could get to the signup point. In many cases, we hit a wall. They say they're trying to speed it up.
So day one of six months, it's not like this is the only day to do it. Hopefully they will get this going.
BALDWIN: Hopefully they won't have the no options button.
Elizabeth, thank you.
Coming up here as we continue our special coverage, five of the outrageous numbers you need to know when it comes to the shutdown, everything from brides to be to cold-hard cash. We have all five for you.
Plus, road rage at its worst caught on video, bikers and the driver of this SUV go at it on this New York highway.
Now, word of an arrest, who's at fault here? We're "On the Case."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Everything and everyone from brides-in-waiting to NASA workers, all feeling the government shutdown today, but not members of Congress. They won't miss a paycheck.
Five numbers make the point perfectly. Here is Christine Romans. Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Brooke, have you tuned in to NASA TV today? No cool spacewalks to see. Just this message, a message saying, "NASA TV is unavailable due to lapse in funding."
Brooke, that brings me to the five most outrageous numbers of the government shutdown.
Fifty-five, happy birthday, NASA. You're 55-years-old today, but there's no cake. Almost everyone was sent home, only a skeleton crew now at mission control on this, NASA's birthday.
The next number, outrageous, $3,346. That's what the typical Congress member will take home in his or her paycheck this week. Even though they shut down the government, they're still paid. That's four times the typical worker.
Next outrageous number, 10, as in 10 percent, Congress approval rating. For some context, during the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon's approval rating was 34 percent.
By the way, root canals, Brussels sprouts, head lice and colonoscopies, all have a higher approval rating than Congress.
Next outrageous number of the shutdown, 24, the number of potential "bride-zillas" in D.C. That's right. The government says it's working with 24 couples who were planning October wedding events at national monuments.
Couples have been informed those events can't take place if the government stays shut down.
And. finally, the most outrageous number of all, 16, the number of days until the U.S. Treasury doesn't have enough money to pay all of its bills. It sets us up for another showdown.
A government shutdown does not necessarily halt Social Security payments. Right now those payments are still going out, but a debt limit crisis in 16 days could do so. It could stop veterans benefits, Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursements as well.
Brooke?
BALDWIN: Christine Romans, thank you very much. I know. Happy birthday, NASA.
Coming up, terrifying video of a gang of motorcycle riders surround an SUV in New York City. One of them smashes through the window with his helmet.
We will tell you what happened next.
And another incident of road rage, this one in Kentucky. A man gets video of another driver rolling his window down, pointing a gun. At least one shot may have been fired.
That whole story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I want to take you to New York for this story. This motorcyclist faces assault charges after police say he and a pack of bikers attacked an SUV driver whose wife and two-year-old child were in this car. The cyclist is under arrest, the entire thing caught on video.
This all happened this past Sunday. This is along the West Side highway. Authorities say the Range Rover on the right side of the screen hit one of the bikers.
The other riders became upset. They surrounded this Range Rover, tried to block in the driver.
That's when police say he slammed on the gas, pulled away, hit three more bikers.
A chase ensued and, when it came time to stop, some of these riders yanked the driver out of the SUV and beat him up.
That's New York. Investigation continues there.
Meantime, in Indiana, yet another case of serious road rage, also caught on camera, authorities arrested this man identified as Perrin Dobyns. They say he rolled down his window, pointed a gun, point-blank at another driver.
This is along a Kentucky interstate. They say he may have even fired it. You see that there? Look at that.
The other driver allegedly targeted by the man says he recorded the video of the incident as they both were speeding down the highway.
More now from reporter Nikki Burdine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's extremely scary, what actually could happen or what the outcome of this could have been.
NIKKI BURDINE, WLEX REPORTER: It all started on I-75 in Madison County Sunday afternoon, when the person recording this video told police he witnessed the man identified by police as Perrin Dobyns in this black sedan engaging in road rage.
What happened next was probably something the man behind the camera was not expecting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The passenger front window was rolled down and the driver produced a firearm and allegedly shot it at the driver.
The victim in this case said that he heard what he thought to be a shot.
BURDINE: You can allegedly see Dobyns in the black sedan clearly pointing a pistol.
Although you don't hear a gunshot, the victim told police he heard what could have been.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously after something like that, he didn't feel like following the car.
BURDINE: The victim turned off the camera and called police. Now investigators have charged Dobyns of Indiana with felony wanton endangerment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I watched the video. Traffic wasn't excessively heavy. There wasn't any reason for somebody to point a pistol at somebody when they pull up next to them with a cell phone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Nikki Burdine, reporting from our affiliate, WLEX.
CNN, we should tell you, has tried to make contact with Dobyns, his representatives. Thus far, there has been no response.
Coming up, a day out hiking turns tragic as a deadly rockslide traps this family of six, the lone survivor, a 13-year-old girl. Find out who she says saved her life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A day in the Colorado mountains ends tragically for a family of six who went hiking near a waterfall. A deadly rockslide trapped them underneath tons of rubble, the lone survivor of this family of six, this 13-year-old girl.
This slide happened Monday morning. This is near Mount Princeton, about 120 miles southwest of Denver. Sheriff's deputies say the boulders were as big as cars.
Local reports say this girl, whose condition remains unknown at this point, was hiking with members of her family, including her mom and dad. Today, teams were back out there trying to recover those five bodies.
The surviving teenager reportedly told rescuers that her dad saved her life by jumping on top of her moments before those boulders came tumbling down that mountainside.
The cause of the rockslide is not yet known.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me.
"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper out of Washington starts right now.
