Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Government Showdown; Terrorist Raid; Three Soldiers Arrested for Murder; Monster Truck Crash

Aired October 07, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there. I'm John Berman, in for Brooke Baldwin today.

A huge hour of news ahead. Let's begin with the president, who just called the showdown a manufactured crisis by Congress. But now, in addition to government work places emptying, gathering dust, our federal government 10 days from today will essentially run out of cash and will lose permission to borrow more money to pay bills that it owes.

This is the president, who spoke just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard a lot of talk over the weekend that the real problem is, is that the president will not negotiate. Well, let me tell you something, I have said from the start of the year that I'm happy to talk to Republicans about anything related to the budget. There's not a subject that I am not willing to engage in, work on, negotiate and come up with common sense compromises on. What I've said is, that I cannot do that under the threat that if Republicans don't get 100 percent of their way, they're going to either shut down the government or they are going to default on America's debt, so that America, for the first time in history, does not pay its bills.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So that was the president speaking. By the way, I should say, we will hear in a moment from Warren Buffett warning that we're risking some sort of catastrophe here. But the bottom line, politically speaking, is that Democrats and Republicans are both saying they're willing to talk, sort of, just not on the other side's terms.

So let's go quickly to Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.

Dana, we're in the middle of this crisis right now, the government shutdown crisis. Now we're staring at another one that could be worse, the potential default. But today, there seems to be some sort of linguistic dance about just what a negotiation is and what would be negotiated. You get the sense there's some movement today, maybe. Can you explain?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, everybody needs an out. Each side needs an out in order for the U.S., let's just talk about the think that would be most catastrophic to the economy, which, as you mentioned, is the debt limit. And we reach that -- the U.S. reaches that next Thursday.

So everybody needs a way to save face. And so for the president, he has said, I am not going to negotiate at all on anything and we're going to have a clean debt ceiling, meaning we're not going to attach anything, we're not going to give in on anything, whether it's entitlements or anything else. Then on the other side, you have John Boehner, who has said consistently the same thing, I am not going to even entertain putting a clean no-strings-attached bill to increase the debt ceiling on the House floor unless the president talks to me.

So there has to be, obviously, some kind of give here. Somebody's got to give in. And perhaps the way that this is going to happen is, as John Boehner said, a conversation that he could have. Perhaps it is, as the president suggested, a conversation that he could have. The question, of course, comes down to the nitty-gritty and whether that conversation will produce anything that allows the speaker to save face. Maybe he could get the president to agree to maybe down the road do something on entitlements. If that would be enough for his conservatives, who knows. And then same goes for the president.

They have basically both put themselves in entrenched corners and in order to get themselves out and get the United States out and maybe even the global economy out, they've got to figure out, as you said, a linguistic, semantic way to cut a deal.

BERMAN: And maybe they can have a conversation without having a negotiation, and that could be the way out. We will see if the door opened just a little today. Dana Bash on The Hill for us, thanks so much.

So as far as the debt limit is concerned, the prospect of the government running out of money and not being able to borrow, there are some in Congress, some Republicans, who are saying, it's no big deal to them. It's not as bad as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. But now a well-known titan of Wall Street is warning that this particular game of political chicken is getting way out of hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN BUFFETT, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Well, it ought to be banned as a weapon. I mean it should be like -- it should be like nuclear bombs. I mean, basically, too horrible to use.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So Warren Buffett just likened this looming debt default to nuclear devastation. But Congressman Ted Yoho, a Republican of Florida, says that by refusing to raise this so-called debt limit, Congress would have the reverse effect of bringing stability to world markets. Of course, the markets have done quite well this year if (ph) the economy slowly recovers. Right now the Dow Jones Industrial average is down 66 points today. It's a trend we've seen over the last few weeks. There are these fears over the default by the U.S. government. We're lucky to have Rick Newman here with us, a great columnist for Yahoo!, who is great at explaining this stuff for us.

Rick, very quickly, the debt limit. In 10 seconds or less, what is the debt limit?

RICK NEWMAN, COLUMNIST, YAHOO! FINANCE: The debt limit would be if the U.S. government cannot pay interest on the debt it has issued. Those are Treasury bonds. So if it says, you know, we gave -- we gave -- put the full faith and credit of the government behind these bonds when you bought them, we can't pay your -- make your interest payments and maybe we can't make your principal payments. That would be default. And that's the nuclear holocaust scenario that Warren Buffett is talking about.

BERMAN: These are the bills that we owe and we will not have the money to pay these bills after October 17th. So is Warren Buffett right, that we're dealing with nuclear devastation here in financial terms?

NEWMAN: He is -- he is right. And here's why he's right. Treasury securities are the underpinning of the entire world's financial system. There are trillions and trillions of dollars of these things out there. Pension funds hold them. These are widow and orphan types investments. And if suddenly the U.S. government is not making payments on those bonds, I think even if it's for a short period of time, everything changes about the world's financial market. It will trigger things that have to go into place. It would be more than we can all imagine or lay out in a half hour, I'm sure, but it's a -- it's just a nightmare scenario that nobody wants to happen.

BERMAN: The scariest part of this nightmare to a lot of people is frankly, we don't know how it plays out if they don't raise the debt ceiling.

NEWMAN: It's -- what we know is it's going to worse than anybody can imagine. Nobody -- there -- nobody wants to see this play out.

BERMAN: Do contractors get paid? Does anyone get paid?

NEWMAN: Well, it's different from paying your bills. I mean you bill is just something you owe. This is what you owe to debt holders, which is -- has a higher priority than bills. And if you can't even make those payments, that's basically saying that everything about the government has broken.

BERMAN: All right, Rick, sit tight for a minute because Speaker John Boehner, the Republican, he is speaking on the House floor right now. Let's see if he responds to the president.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I'm going to say this again, a senior White House staffer this morning said that the president would rather default on our debt than to sit down and negotiate. Now, the American people expect, when their leaders have differences, and we're in a time of crisis, that we'll sit down and at least have a conversation. Really, Mr. President, it's time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk. And I yield back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman's time has expired.

The (INAUDIBLE) gentlelady from Hawaii.

BERMAN: That was Speaker John Boehner speaking in the well of the U.S. House. By the way, not always common to hear the speaker of the House speaking from down there. Obviously, he deems it important enough to do it. It was interesting, he called on the president to have a conversation. I don't want to split hairs here, but the president has said he won't negotiate --

NEWMAN: Right.

BERMAN: With the debt limit hanging over his head, but he's willing to talk. It is possible then that they just found common ground there? They can talk without negotiating?

NEWMAN: It sounds like they're having a discussion about possibly having a discussion. I think that's what people back home are saying, what's with these -- what's with parsing these different words? Why don't these guys just fix the problem?

But at the end of the day, they're going to have to fix the problem. The sort of good news about the debt ceiling being such a big deal is, we can't -- we can't default on U.S. debt. And it's -- everybody knows that. The question is, how do we get to the point where, as Dana said, everybody saves some face and we get a deal that prevents the worst thing from happening and just lets us get back to running the economy in a normal way.

BERMAN: And the speaker has said again and again privately that he will not let the U.S. default, but that might mean that he has to pass something --

NEWMAN: Right.

BERMAN: With more Democratic votes.

NEWMAN: Right. So that seems to be the sort of thing he's holding in his pocket, which he can get a bill passed, it just won't involve Republican unity and perhaps not Democratic unity. But the Republicans look like they'd be losers if that were the case. BERMAN: All right, Rick Newman, thank you so much for being here with us.

NEWMAN: OK.

BERMAN: Hopefully we're not talking about this in 11 days because that means we're in a world of trouble.

NEWMAN: Right. Right.

BERMAN: All right, talking about world of trouble here, brace for possible tornadoes. That warning for big parts of the East Coast right now, including right where I am sitting in New York City, also Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. The National Weather Service issuing the tornado watch, which goes until about 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Coming up, Chad Myers joins us to talk about the possible threat.

Speaking, I should say, of bad weather, check out what is happening here in New York right now. This is a construction crane. It is a live look. It is dangling over midtown Manhattan. These are live pictures, as we said.

We're told this is due to some kind of mechanical failure. Police have closed off the streets below. Now, if this building looks familiar to you, this is the same construction site where a crane snapped last year during Superstorm Sandy, caused by the enormous winds there. This building is supposed to be the city's tallest residential building when it's all said and done. We're keeping an eye on what's going on there right now. The wind is expected to pick up over the coming few hours. We will give you updates as they happen.

All right, two secret U.S. raids on international soil, in Somalia and in Libya, two high value targets with two very different outcomes. The first in Somalia, in a town just outside of the capital, Mogadishu, Navy SEALs swam ashore. Their aim was to capture a man called Ikrima. He's a key player in the al Qaeda linked al Shabaab movement. This is the group behind a terrorist attack on the shopping mall in Kenya last month. The team in charge of this raid, SEAL Team 6. If that's sounds familiar to you, that is the same unit that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout in 2011. This time, it does not appear that it went quite as well. A firefight so intense they decided to withdraw without ever knowing if they actually got their man.

The other raid, though, 3,000 miles away in Tripoli, in Libya. That one, a success. Abu Anas al Libi, a suspected al Qaeda operative wanted for the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. He has been captured by Delta Force operatives. His wife speaking exclusively to CNN about what she saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UMM ABDUL RAHMAN, WIFE OF CAPTURED AL QAEDA SUSPECT AL LIBI (through translator): We expected them to do anything, but they took us by surprise. This thing came all of a sudden. There was no longer any talk about him in the media. So I felt somewhat reassured. He even stopped taking his weapon or his sons with him or hiring private security. He was living his life normally.

Everything happened rapidly. They grabbed him and shoved him in the car. I saw them doing this and saying, "get in." But wasn't sure that was my husband. The cars then sped off like a rocket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Al Libi is being held right now on a U.S. Navy ship believed to be in the Mediterranean. An interrogation is underway. Joining me now to discuss this, James Reese, a former Delta Force officer.

James, al Libi's wife describes a snatch and grab right there. You say these guys are like ghosts, they sneak in and they get out. What is the advantage to doing this type of capture operation? JAMES REESE, FORMER DELTA FORCE OFFICER: John, good afternoon.

The advantage for doing these type of capture -- first and foremost is, we want to capture these terrorists. We want to capture these bad guys because, if we just kill them, we put a predator drone on it and we kill them, there's no follow-on information for intelligence. So the best thing we always want to do is capture before we kill.

BERMAN: The risk -- I suppose the risk is what happened in Somalia, where they go in and they don't get the man for sure.

REESE: It is. It is a much higher risk. But both of these organizations from the SOCOM (ph) command element, these really are the guys who conduct the Jason Bourn type of operations around the world. The one in Somalia, that ground force commander probably had lots of guidance given to him that said if he was decisively engaged, he needed to break contact so he didn't have collateral damage. Up north in Tripoli, the operation goes smoothly and the ghosts get in and they come out and they get their man.

BERMAN: They got their man. He's on a ship right now in the Mediterranean. What do you think is happening right now? What are they trying to get from this guy before he gets lawyers, because we don't believe that he's been read his rights yet.

REESE: Well, this is a complete interagency operation right now, probably led by the CIA, you have the FBI, you've got Department of Defense interrogators there, too. What's really going on here, it's an interview, and we're trying to find out what type of current information al Libi has. Is any of it actionable? If it's actionable, that just means is, what can we turn another follow-on operation around the world with these two type of forces again, and then we'll continue to work this piece until he gets back to New York and brought to justice for his crimes in the past.

BERMAN: You used the word interview. That might make it sound like it's a pleasant discussion. But what kind of interrogation techniques do you think are being used right now?

REESE: Well, again, you know, there are -- I can't speak. I can only, you know, guess what's going on. But we've also learned through the years is, these folks are very well trained in type of seize -- you know, if they get seized, how to work through (INAUDIBLE) interrogation.

And one of the things we've learned over the years now, after 11 years of doing this is, sometimes it is a conversation. You know, as you heard from his wife, said he felt comfortable in his surroundings in Libya. Now all of a sudden you wake up and the Americans are standing in front of you on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean maybe somewhere, the whole game changes. So now this guy might be saying, hey, it might be better for me now to talk because I've been grabbed by the Americans and there's no way out.

BERMAN: He is living a much different life today than he was just one week ago, no question about that. James Reese, thank you so much for being with us.

Next hour, we'll take a look again at the anatomy of a terrorist raid. This time we'll speak to a Navy SEAL about that other raid in Somalia that apparently failed to capture the suspect there.

Meanwhile, coming up next here, a group of soldiers walking on the street and suddenly one of them is stabbed to death. Reports first pointed to a possible hate crime, but now a new detail suggests something entirely different. We're on that case.

Plus, unbelievable images. A monster truck driving into the crowd. Find out how this ends, and one governor's explosive suggestion about the driver. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back, everyone.

Police in Lakewood, Washington, have arrested three men who are facing murder charges now in the stabbing death of a fellow soldier. Police say 20-year-old Tevin Geike was walking with friends early Saturday morning when an argument began between them and soldiers in a car. The car allegedly stopped. The men got out. But once they discovered that Geike and his friends were also active duty soldiers, they started back for their car. Police say that's when one suspect, Jeremiah Hill (ph), appeared to bear hug the victim and pushed him to the ground. Geike had been stabbed and died later at the scene. CNN's Stephanie Elam now joins me from Los Angeles.

Stephanie, how were police finally able to track down these suspects?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it turns out that there may have been wounds (ph) that actually left on one of the suspects that led to this whole thing coming together and finding out that the five men in the car were actually active duty soldier as well.

But reportedly, one soldier said that he heard from one soldier who said he needed to be treated on his hands, some first aid. He said he hurt his hands. His story changed multiple times. Sergeant took him to the hospital where his story changed again. That led investigators to follow up on the story. That particular soldier, they allege, is Jeremiah Hill. He's 23 years old. He has now been arrested, along with this case, along with two other soldiers as well, all because of the fact that he had these wounds to his hand, John.

BERMAN: Now, this story has gotten a great deal of attention over the last 24 hours. Police initially said they thought that race might be a factor in the stabbing. Why has that now been ruled out?

ELAM: Well, the thing that you have to know about this story here is that the three men that were walking, that were along with Mr. Geike, were -- the three of them were white. The five men in the car were black. That part there, they thought that there may have been something yelled out of the car about them being white, some sort of slang or term that was used. But police say after interviewing everyone who was there and involved in this case, that they now believe that race did not play a case -- play any issue with this case at all and that they believe that this was something else that was motivated here. But remember, Jeremiah Hill has refused to be interviewed and has not come forward with what his reasoning has been.

BERMAN: Well, he hasn't spoken, but have they given any sense, the police have, about what else may have been in play? Any indication that these eight men, the three on the street, the five in the car, were they in the same unit?

ELAM: No, they were all based now -- I will tell you that they were all based on the same property up there in Washington, the joint base Lewis-McChord there, but they were in different units. The five men were in the combat infantry unit. Geike was assigned to the combat aviation unit. He was just days away from finishing up his service to the Army. He's from South Carolina. He was almost done, should have been on his way to living his life as a civilian here. So a very tragic story here. And no one really knows what the motive could have been at around 2:00 in the morning on Saturday when this all happened on the street there, John.

BERMAN: All right, Stephanie Elam, still -- we still have a lot more answers here, clearly. Thanks for your reporting on this. appreciate it.

Up next, a monster truck drives right into a crowd. Look at that. We will have the details on what happened and why the driver is now under investigation.

Plus, this. It's like play a scene straight out of home alone. No ticket. No permission. A little boy boards an airplane and travels all alone. Apparently he wanted to go to Vegas. A flight safety expert joins me and says he knows who's to blame here. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back, everyone.

Witnesses at the Grand Prix of Houston say the crash happened so fast, there wasn't even time to run. Dario Franchitti's car was bumped in the final lap of this race, sending it airborne into the protective fencing. Look at that. Debris flying towards the grandstand. The three-time Indy 500 winner suffered a concussion and spine and ankle fractures. That's amazing that was all he suffered. Thirteen spectators were also hurt. Witness Daniel Craig (ph) described this terrifying scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL DANIEL, WITNESSED INDY CRASH: The car went into the air, and it started coming toward the fence. This all happened in less than a second. There was no time to move. There was no time to run away. The thought in my mind was that these were going to be the last moments that I was going to be experiencing on earth. It was truly shocking. The car struck the fence and literally people say they heard a bomb. It sounded like there was a bomb that went off. And the car turned into debris. It was once an entire car. Then nothing but particles rained upon us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Actress Ashley Judd, who separated with Franchitti after more than 11 years of marriage, tweeted that she was on her way to Houston and thanked fans for their prayers. In a statement just in to CNN, Franchitti says, "Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes. They mean a lot to me. I would also like to send my best to all the fans involved in the accident and hope that everyone is all right." Awfully nice of this man who just underwent that awful crash, giving his best wishes to the crowd and the people in there who also suffered.

There was another scary scene to tell you about, this one was in Mexico, as a monster truck this time plows through a crowd of spectators. This time, eight people were killed, dozens and dozens injured. CNN's Sara Ganim joins us now from Atlanta to talk about this.

Sara, any details about how this happened?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, you've got to take a look at this video. You see the red monster truck doing its stunts, driving over a pile of cars. But then it doesn't stop. It drives right into the crowd. Officials there in Chihuahua, Mexico, say eight people were killed, including four children. Dozens of other were injured. Twenty- eight people are still in the hospital, 12 of those people in critical condition. Now the city's mayor tells the state-run media that he's ordering an investigation. The governor told reporters that the driver may have been drinking before getting behind the wheel of that truck. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CESAR DUARTE, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (through translator): Whoever is responsible will be prosecuted. There are some elements that indicate the possibility the driver had consumed an alcoholic beverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: CNN hasn't been able to reach the driver's attorney, but the state prosecutor says the driver himself is saying that he passed out before he hit his head. Now, passed out and hit his head on that -- on the wheel of the car during that stunt.

Now, Mexico's president tweeted, "to the families of the victims of this tragedy, my deepest condolences. To the injured, my wishes for a quick recovery." Just tragic all around. The show, which has also had things like aerobics, skydiving, air balloons, motorcycles and fireworks, the whole thing has been suspended while authorities investigate.

John.

BERMAN: The video, just so horrible to look at. It just goes over and almost slowly just keeps wheeling into the crowd there. It definitely raises questions about spectator safety. Sara Ganim, thanks so much for that report. Appreciate it.

Coming up for us next here --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "GRAVITY": Explorer has been hit. Explorer, do you read? Explorer, over. Explorer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, so just how realistic is the biggest film in America? Some science experts are blasting "Gravity." You will hear from a former astronaut and a couple of other experts who have some differing opinions.

Plus, one of the biggest questions of the day, how did a nine-year-old boy sneak onto an airplane headed for Las Vegas? I'm going to speak live with one flight safety expert who says he knows what the problem was and who's to blame for this. You don't want to miss this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)