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Toronto Mayor Wont' Quit; Honda Recall; L.A.X. Gunman Fits Terrorist Profile; Defining Terrorism in the United States; YouTube Holds its First Music Awards

Aired November 04, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead in the NEWSROOM, a man walks into L.A.X. and kills a TSA officer. A note found on him says he wanted to instill fear into their traitorous minds. So was Paul Ciancia a terrorist?

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: Whatever this video shows, folks, Toronto residents deserve to see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The Toronto mayor coming clean. Well, sort of. OK, just a little. This is the story when an apology is not an apology.

And, this is getting ridiculous. We just got done with Halloween and the full throttle paint everything red and green nonstop perils, ho, ho, ho, stand in line forever, rude salespeople, even more rude crowds, ugly sweaters, Christmas retail assault is here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could feel the Christmas noose beginning to tighten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's already tight. Past the eggnog and let's go shopping for some deals. NEWSROOM continues now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Caught on tape, smoking what appears to be a crack pipe. That's the very serious allegation Toronto police are making against that city's mayor, saying evidence they recovered in an investigation is, quote, "consistent" with reports of the mayor's drug abuse. Now Mayor Ford is apologizing, sort of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: I am not perfect. I have made mistakes. I have made mistakes and all I can do right now is apologize. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm never going to drink again. That's not realistic. But I can't be --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything in moderation, Rob.

FORD: Everything in moderation's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And despite calls for the mayor to resign, he says he isn't going anywhere. Maybe he's on to something because one poll shows his approval rating is actually up by five percentage points after those police comments. CNN's Nick Valencia is here.

This is a crazy story, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an extraordinarily story. And it's going to be an extraordinarily difficult time for investigators to actually point out what's in that pipe that he's smoking. That's probably going to be a defense that he's going to use. Even if he was caught on tape smoke out of a glass pipe, it's hard to tell if there was actually crack cocaine in it. On Sunday, the mayor dug in on those drug abuse allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): After months of bombshell headlines alleging crack cocaine abuse and erratic behavior, it was what Toronto Mayor Rob Ford had to say on his radio show Sunday that had everyone listening.

MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: Friends, I'm the first one to admit, I am not perfect. I have made mistakes. I have made mistakes and all I can do right now is apologize for the mistakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have gathered the evidence --

VALENCIA: In a news conference last Thursday, Toronto's police chief said they have video of what appears to be the mayor smoking from a glass pipe. Ford has repeatedly denying using crack since the allegations surfaced in May. On Sunday, he said that video should be made public.

FORD: Whatever this video shows, folks, Toronto residents deserve to see it and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video.

VALENCIA: Mayor Ford was also featured prominently in a more than 460 page police investigation into gang activity. The report, important as much for what it says about the mayor, as what it doesn't say. Page after page about Ford's alleged drug abuse redacted. But there were photos, including one of Ford, in front of what police say is a crack house with three men alleged to be gang members. Surveillance video also showed questionable behavior. The mayor seen with his one-time driver who has since been arrested on extortion charges related to the video that alleges to show Ford using crack cocaine. Ford hasn't been charged with anything himself, but he has become the butt of jokes.

JON STEWART, "THE DALY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": Hey, hey, don't judge him. Maybe he's cleaning up the city by smoking all the crack in it.

VALENCIA: Now, the mayor's taking responsibility, even if he's quite not ready to say why he's apologizing.

FORD: There's no one to blame but myself and I take full responsibility for it. I want to move forward. But I also know to move forward, I have to make changes in my life, which I can assure you that I will do. I love the work I do and I'm going to keep doing it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Now, after police announced that they had this tape, his approval rating actually went up 5 percent. There is a caveat to those numbers though. The Ford nation that is largely supporting him, 60 percent still think that he should resign there in Toronto.

COSTELLO: So - OK, I'm struggling to understand this. So is he a good mayor? I mean is he a great mayor?

VALENCIA: He - yes -

COSTELLO: Enough to excuse him smoking what appeared to be a crack pipe that may or may not have crack in it? But come on now.

VALENCIA: Well, after he went on to this unspecified apology, he went on to tout his achievements as mayor. He's lowered the budget. He's given a lot of new municipal facilities. He's helped a lot there locally. So a lot of people there in Toronto, they really love this guy. He's a charming guy. He's out in the public eye a lot. He talks a lot to his constituents. He has this weekly radio program. He's very popular, though some people want him to at least take a leave of absence. So we'll see what happens, Carol.

COSTELLO: Such a strange story.

VALENCIA: It is.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Nick.

VALENCIA: You got it.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

VALENCIA: All right, you bet.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Honda now. Honda is recalling 344,000 minivans this morning because of a software problem that causes the vehicles to brake without warning. But it's what the company is telling its drivers, its customers that really caught our attention. Let's go to Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. This is kind of unbelievable.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know when, you know, there are these recalls for these automobiles and the automaker, Carol, you know, sends you out a letter, tells you to go to the dealer to get it fixed. It usually happens within a month or so. Well, guess what, the fix for this, it's not happening until next spring. What Honda says is happening is, these minivans can drop in speed by as much as 30 miles per hour in just a short time.

And this can happen very, very quickly. And when it happens, guess what, the brake lights, they don't go on, so the driver behind you doesn't see you braking. So Honda is blaming the problem on a sensor issue. It's saying that this hydraulic pressure builds up in the breaking system. And when it releases, the car unexpectedly brakes.

Now this is going to be effected 344,000 Honda Odyssey minivans with the model years 2007 and 2008. Now the effected owners will be getting a letter from Honda letting them know about the recall. And when the new sensor is available next year, Honda will send another letter. And so far, thankfully though, no injuries, no deaths in this.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Alison Kosik reporting live this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, he wanted to instill fear into the minds of TSA employees by gunning them down at the Los Angeles Airport. So why isn't he being called a terrorist? The debate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: His anti-government views helped inspire a deadly shooting at one of the nation's largest airports. But my next guest says Paul Ciancia, a white man from New Jersey, accused in the L.A.X. shooting, should not be dismissed as someone suffering from stress or mental issues. That the issue is actually much deeper. Arsalan Iftikhar is the founder of themuslimguy.com and senior editor for "Islamic Monthly." And his latest piece for the publican is titled "The L.A.X. Airport Shooter is a Terrorist." He writes in part, quote, "These same right-wingers who always call for the racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims after every terrorist attack will now be silent since they would now have to call for the racial profiling of every 20 something white dude from New Jersey. That would pretty much mean that the entire cast of Jersey Shore would now be under NSA surveillance," end quote.

Good morning, Arsalan.

ARSALAN IFTIKHAR, FOUNDER, THEMUSLIMGUY.COM: Good morning, Carol. Good to talk to you.

COSTELLO: Glad you're here.

So Ciancia is charged with serious crimes. He could get the death penalty if he's convicted. Isn't that enough?

IFTIKHAR: Well, I think, you know, what we have to look at, Carol, is the fact that, you know, if it was a 23-year-old brown dude with a name like Mohammed Ali (ph) or Aziz Ansari (ph), that our entire media meta narrative would be calling this an act of terrorism, which it would be. You know, here you had a man who walked into a public place, Los Angeles International Airport, with an automatic - with an assault rifle, trying to instill fear in the general public with a - with a political ideology, an anti-government ideology, and all that I'm saying is, that if it was a brown dude with an anti-government ideology, our entire American society would be calling it an act of terrorism, which it is, and I think that Paul Anthony Ciancia should be called a terrorist.

COSTELLO: Well, we were interested in how the FBI defines domestic terrorism, and so we looked it up. And this is how it defines domestic terrorism. One, it involves acts dangerous to human life that violates federal or state law, two, appear intended to, among other things, intimidate or coerce a civilian population, and, three, occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. And all of these things certainly seem to fit what Paul Ciancia is accused of, right? But isn't there a difference between someone having mental illness and using something as an excuse, you know, as opposed to someone who like goes to another country, is trained by terrorists overseas and then comes back into the United States to commit an act of terrorism?

IFTIKHAR: Well, no, Carol, I think it's important to keep in mind that, you know, FBI and law enforcement officials said that he carried a one page manifesto with him which basically was an anti-government diatribe, especially against the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, that had disparaging comments about former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the rhetoric that he used in this manifesto was almost part and parcel of the so-called quote/unquote patriot movement here in the United States, which sees the Department of Homeland Security as an enemy and part of this, you know, conspiracy they're new world order thing. And so I think under any normative (ph) definition of the term terrorism, which most people deem to be violence committed against the general public with a political ideology, you know, and I think the patriot movement is definitely one that would fit the profile here.

COSTELLO: Well, help us understand, you know, in a wider perspective, how not naming Paul Ciancia a terrorist affects the Muslim community.

IFTIKHAR: Well, I think it not only affects the Muslim community here in the United States, I think it affects all minorities. I think what we've done here in America, sadly, is co-opted the term terrorism for only apply to black and brown people here in the United States. And when a white man, like Paul Ciancia, commits that same act of terrorism, we don't see the term terrorist attached to someone like him. And so I think it sends a very, very, you know, resounding message to people of color here in the United States that there is a terrorism double standard out there and that if a brown man commits an act of terrorism, it will be called terrorism. But when a white man does it, then it's just mental health issues. He's just a crazy, cookie loner.

COSTELLO: Arsalan Iftikhar, senior editor of "Islamic Monthly," thanks so much for joining me this morning.

IFTIKHAR: Anytime, Carol. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks.

Well, we're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: So question for you this morning. A simple one, I promise. What was the last time you actually watched a music video on television, on MTV? Yes they don't play music videos on MTV anymore. I know. It's all on YouTube for the most part now that's where you see music videos. So forget about those MTV music video award shows. YouTube thinks it is the future for such programs. So it held the first music awards show last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many people up here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen million people. And you guys tonight, we find out who you voted for, who the winner is. This is the big night. So --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there's a theme. There's a theme tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the theme of the night is he creativity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It was all over -- it was all over the place. Clearly not your typical awards show.

CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner is in New York with more on the YouTube Music Video Awards.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

COSTELLO: Some big names appeared though.

TURNER: Yes, I think the theme of the night though was unscripted. Because it was a -- it was a lot like you said all over the place. The lesson it could have been the beginning of the great new awards show Carol. Or it could have been just a matter of stop during an award season.

We're talking about the YouTube music awards they managed to combine that chaotic improvised feel of a live performance with the kind of billion dollar business model that they actually are. I mean the show featured performances by people like Eminem, Lady Gaga, North Cape Fire (ph). But it was almost like aggressively unscripted and unpolished.

Now according to "The New York Times" creative director Spike Jones planned this whole show in just about two weeks. That's crazy. Yes I know. It was hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts. And you knew it was going to be different right off the bat. At the beginning, Rashida Jones walked out and handed both hosts a baby. A baby-- I know, right? That's what everybody was saying watching. What? Excuse me? This isn't something that you're going to see in any other awards show. But it's all about the crowd too. Because as the two men handed out the first award of the night, which is the break out award to Michael Moore and Ryan Lewis (ph) the kids were kind of letting everybody know that they weren't too happy about it.

Look at those babies. Not too happy. They're crying. Some other winners from the night were Eminem for artist of the year and the South Korean pop group, Girls' Generation for video of the year which a lot of people didn't even know about. They didn't even know they existed. But unlike the established awards shows, the winners seemed less important than the show itself. It lasted about 90 minutes.

Millions of people apparently voted for the winners online and they were posted during the show. But I don't know about viewership because it seemed like the peak was about 215,000. It averaged about 180,000 so it's really tough to tell what will happen from here, if it's the start of something huge. But what does it mean YouTube? The good thing is you can go back today or tomorrow or the next day and watch it, because it's online.

COSTELLO: Absolutely and maybe next year maybe they'll do a little more planning.

TURNER: Two weeks -- Carol, you know, we've seen CNN Heroes on this network, and the minute that the show is over one year, they start planning for next year. Can you even imagine putting together an entire awards show in two weeks?

COSTELLO: No, but I'm going to watch it because in a way I kind of like that off-the-cuff kind of stuff.

TURNER: It's a train wreck that you can't take your eyes away from. Of course.

COSTELLO: Nischelle thanks so much.

TURNER: Sure.

COSTELLO: If you were watching the Simpsons last night, you might have noticed a special tribute to one of the shows departed characters. Bart Simpson wrote a touching blackboard message, simply, "we'll really miss you Mrs. K." It's of course, a tribute to the famed Marsha Wallace, the actress who voiced his cynical chain-smoking teacher Mrs. Krabapple. Wallace passed away last month. She was 70 years old.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles has a game for the record books. He tosses seven -- count them -- seven touchdown passes in a blowout win over Oakland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: the players' wives have to be happy about this. World Series MVP David Ortiz and Boston Red Sox teammate Shane Victorino had their beards shaved off for charity this morning. Thank God that's gone. Gillette announced it would donate $100,000 to the One Fund for the Boston Marathon bombing victims. The Red Sox grew beards, as you know, as a team this season as a sign of solidarity. The Sox won the series after finishing in the basement of their division last year. They look so much nicer.

Ok. Let's talk about football and the Philadelphia Eagles because man, the backup quarterback Nick Foles had himself quite a game on Sunday. He actually tied an NFL record.

Joe Carter is here to tell us more.

JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS: You know, it's funny because Philly wanted to bury this guy a couple of weeks ago when he had a terrible game against the Cowboys. Now they want to give him the key of the city. They're like come on Nick Foles, you're our guest.

COSTELLO: Football fans.

CARTER: Yes, you know, he is playing because Michael Vick is out with that hamstring injury. He certainly did the most of his --

COSTELLO: Michael who?

CARTER: Michael who -- yes. He did make the most of his opportunity yesterday. And he said, yes, I've passed for seven touchdowns in one game before, but it happened in a video game with my buddies. He joked about it I thought it was (inaudible). And he could have actually broken the record yesterday because he only played in three quarters. But the coach (inaudible) decided to pull him for obvious reasons, obviously crushing the Raiders and they just want to keep him healthy as well. But he does join an elite group of five other quarterbacks in NFL history to throw seven touchdown passes in one single game.

And this story is trending this morning on our Web site, BleacherReport.com. The Kansas City Chiefs are 9-0. Best record in the NFL. And they beat the Buffalo Bills yesterday, Carol, without scoring one touchdown on offense. Their defense scored two touchdowns.

Now, of course this story is great, because they were the worst team in the NFL last season. They won just two games. And now they're off to their best start in ten years.

And well, Ray Schiano and the Tampa Bay Bucs, off to a totally different start. A terrible year so for, 0-8 and they lost yesterday to the Seahawks in overtime. But perhaps the one positive moment came from that Tebow vintage like play. Check that out. The running back tosses it over to the fullback there. Very cool play. But it was all for naught because they gave up a 21 point lead and lost by a field goal in overtime. Schiano's days I think are numbered in old Tampa. And to the other kind of football -- this happened in Serbia between two heated rivals -- Redstar Belgrade and Partisan. The match was stopped when the visiting teams fans Partisan starting throwing flares onto the field and sort of setting fires in their own sections through out the stadium. Can you believe this?

COSTELLO: No.

CARTER: I've seen flares thrown on the field before but never these big giant fires throughout the stadium. Referees obviously had to halt play for a while to let the firefighters put out the flames and they also had to let the smoke clear. But these are two heated rivals where there's a lot of history between the two. We've seen them step in the past and punish the team and fans are unruly by having them a play with no fans in the stadium. So we're still waiting word to see --

COSTELLO: Did they cancel the game after that?

CARTER: No, they actually finished.

COSTELLO: Well, there you go. Come on.

CARTER: How about that? It's just a fire.

COSTELLO: Joe Carter, thank you.

Yes, whatever -- it's a bonfire.

CARTER: Good to see you though.

COSTELLO: Next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.