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Fixing Obamacare; Southwest Passengers Heard Pilot's Emergency Calls; Debate over Untested Lethal Injection Drugs; Never-Before-Seen Photos of JFK

Aired November 14, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Is this really the best way?

Plus, markets on a roll, your 401(k) soaring.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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

Time is running out for the White House to try to fix one of Obamacare's biggest blunders. I'm talking about the inability of millions of Americans to keep the health coverage they already have if they like it.

Top administration officials are heading to Capitol Hill in just a few hours to try to hammer out a possible fix. Tomorrow House Republicans plan to take their swing at that. This all comes on the heels of the release of a dismal enrollment numbers.

In its first month fewer than 27,000 people signed up for health insurance through healthcare.gov. That crowd wouldn't even fill a Major League Baseball stadium.

Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta and CNN investigative correspondent Chris Frates join me now from Washington.

Good morning to you both.

And, Jim, I'm going to start with you.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

COSTELLO: So first of all who is going to this Capitol Hill meeting and what potential fixes are they going to talk about?

ACOSTA: Well, what we do know, Carol, is that White House chief of staff Denis McDonough will be heading out to Capitol Hill later today to meet with Senate Democrats who are frankly nervous about what is happening right now. You mentioned those people who are losing their insurance plans despite the president's pledge, if you like your plan, you can keep it.

Now in terms of potential fixes, we know last week the White House started talking about administrative fixes but all along officials have been telling us that they've been open to legislative fixes and one potential proposal that is gaining momentum at this point is a bill being advanced by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, who is up for re-election next year we should mention.

That proposal would allow those consumers to continue buying those plans that they have right now. As long as they keep up with their payments, they can keep those plans. It is unclear as to how long all of that would go on but the insurance companies would not be able to cancel those plans, so it would provide some relief to those consumers.

There's another proposal over in the House advanced by Republican Fred Upton that would basically allow the insurers to continue selling these plans that the Obama administration says does not meet Obamacare standards.

The White House -- it's interesting to note, Carol, the White House has sort of been saying no, we don't like the Upton plan but they haven't been saying that about the Landrieu plan, which is why I think you're going to be seeing those officials talking with Senate Democrats about that proposal later today.

The White House, by the way, has said that the president will come up with a fix for some of this, quote, "sooner rather than later," so we're going to be seeing some news on that front I think in short order -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, he's got big -- problems to fix because -- Chris, I'll pose this question to you -- one million people in California have already had their policies canceled, so how does the president fix that?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Carol, that is a big problem for the White House here, and what you have is an insurance commissioner in California who I talked to yesterday posing that question, and he said there's not a lot that he can do. He's a -- he has no ability to make the insurance companies bring those folks back, but Californians are lucky.

They are able to use a state exchange, where they can go in. It's been working better than healthcare.gov, the federal exchange, and they can sign up for insurance on their state exchange, so for those million Californians who have lost their coverage because they've been canceled by the insurance companies officials there tell me that they should go to the exchanges, it's working better than healthcare.gov, which is the federal exchange, and they're looking that they may be able to get some relief through that avenue.

COSTELLO: But they're still not -- but will they be able to keep the plan that they had that they liked? They won't be able to do that even by going through the state exchanges. FRATES: Well that's right, Carol, and that is the political problem here for the Obama administration. They promised Americans, if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. That certainly will not be the case for at least a million people in California and many more people across the country and that is part of what Jim was talking about, with how do we fix this because for Democrats like Mary Landrieu in Louisiana and some other Senate Democrats in very Republican states this could be a political liability for the president.

We see poll numbers out today from Gallup that show 55 percent of people disapprove of health care reform right now. That's very, very worrying to a lot of Democrats who are up for election in November.

COSTELLO: All right, senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, CNN investigative correspondent Chris Frates, thanks so much.

An alarming wake-up call along the Florida coast as a 35-foot sinkhole opens up underneath two homes. Sections of both homes got swallowed up along with a small boat and a tree. Earlier on CNN, one of the homeowners said he knew sinkholes were a possible problem, and he was working with an insurance company to try to get it fixed.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were working on the house to get that sink hole fixed. We've been back and forth with the insurance company. They just wanted to -- do a drafting fix. After the septic incident, we decided well, we're scared to sleep here, let's just get it fixed the way the insurance company wanted it and they started two days ago and, well, that's the result.

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COSTELLO: Six homes now evacuated and the sinkhole keeps growing. Luckily no injuries reported, not yet.

We're in trouble, we're going down. Imagine those words echoing over your plane's loud speaker, coming from the pilot in the cockpit. It's exactly what passengers say they heard this week, just as their Southwest Airlines flight into Raleigh-Durham went into a nosedive.

Heather Waliga from WTVD has the story.

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SHELLEY WILLS, PASSENGER: That I was going to die, and that's what everybody on that plane thought, that we were all going to die. Just by one word of the captain.

HEATHER WALIGA, WTVD REPORTER: Shelley Wills was on her way home from a birthday trip to Tampa when Southwest Flight 3426 took a dramatic drop midair.

WILLS: He says we're going down. And everybody was looking around like, is this a joke? Is he serious? And then we felt the nosedive. WALIGA: Passengers went into panic mode. Wills, a nurse, tried helping the first-time flyer seated next to her who was clutching her chest.

WILLS: I'm just thinking, oh my god, she's going to scare himself into having a heart attack.

WALIGA: She says passengers began reaching for their cell phones, desperately trying to reach loved ones. Wills typed this message to her daughter.

WILLS: It says, I love you, Alyssa, my plane is going down.

WALIGA: Minutes later Wills says the Boeing 737 leveled out and went on to make an emergency landing at RDU.

WILLS: From the last words were, "Thank you for hanging with us."

WALIGA: In a statement Southwest Airlines says Flight 3426 experienced a maintenance alert as they were on descent into RDU. The captain declared an emergency and descended the aircraft to 25,000 feet where the alert was resolved. Throughout the remainder of the descent the flight was normal, landed uneventfully and was not met by emergency vehicles.

ABC 11 has learned the alert went off due to irregular cabin pressure. A spokesperson says the aircraft was checked out and is now back in service. According to flight stats it took crews just one hour to fix the plane before it went on to Baltimore. Wills said the terrifying ordeal has her thinking twice about flying with the airline again.

WILLS: Because you think of your kids, your family. I think they just could have handled it a little bit differently.

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COSTELLO: As you heard, passengers are quite upset over what happened. Here is part of the statement Southwest Airlines e-mailed to them. It says, "As your flight was approaching Raleigh-Durham the pilots observed a loss of normal cabin pressure. In response the captain made the appropriate manual adjustments for the pressure differential and began the descent a little earlier."

The e-mail continues, "During this time as the captain was communicating his plan with flight attendants he inadvertently activated the P.A. system in the cabin. We sincerely regret any confusion caused by the relay of information."

Southwest as is now giving $200 vouchers to passengers so they can, quote, "have better air travel memories."

A runway key to getting typhoon relief into the Philippines is now operating 24/7. Planes had only been able to land at Tacloban airport during daylight hours because of a power outage. U.S. troops on the ground have installed runway lights and beacon so aid supplies can now be delivered around the clock. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a convicted murderer was set to be executed today but now the child killer wants to donate his organs. After the break why the Ohio governor delayed the lethal injection, an unprecedented move and what happens now.

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COSTELLO: In an unprecedented move the execution of a convicted child rapist and killer is on hold because the inmate, Ronald Phillips, wants to donate his organs to his sick relatives. The Ohio Department of Corrections originally denied his request to donate his organs but now the governor wants to look into it.

So Phillips now has eight more months to live. His execution was already surrounded by controversy because of a debate over an untested combination of lethal injection drugs that many medical experts say could cause an excruciating death.

CNN's national correspondent Deb Feyerick has more.

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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When William Happ was put to death by legal injection it took 14 minutes or twice the normal average for him to die.

DEBORAH DENNO, DEATH PENALTY EXPERT: He was conscious and aware for a longer period of time than is typical, and he seemed to be grimacing or showing some indications of discomfort.

FEYERICK: The execution in Florida last month was carried out with a drug never before used for that purpose.

DENNO: The Cruel and Unusual Punishments clause is about having humane executions, not just taking whatever is in your kitchen cupboard.

FEYERICK: In Ohio, prison officials had planned to use an untested sedative-pain killer combination to execute Ronald Phillips, who was convicted of raping and murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. The drugs used in the 32-death penalty states are now running out. The drug manufacturers, many based in Europe, had banned their sale to prisons which are now left scrambling.

RICHARD DIETER, DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER: They want to carry out these executions that they have scheduled but they don't have the drugs and they're changing and trying new procedures, never used before in the history of executions.

FEYERICK: Prison officials are in a difficult position, says former San Quentin warden Jeanne Woodford who presided over four executions.

JEANNE WOODFORD, FORMER SAN QUENTIN WARDEN: They're charged with the responsibility of carrying out the law and so I -- you know, in doing that they have to make decisions. FEYERICK (on camera): Up until five years ago most states use the same three-drug protocol, the first puts the inmate to sleep, the second paralyzes the body, the third and most painful, potassium chloride, stops the heart.

(Voice-over): The shortage has forced some states to buy imitation drugs from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. At least six states went so far as to break the law by importing drugs from outside the U.S.

DIETER: States are paying for the drugs with cash to avoid any tracking, they're getting them from each other, some were obtained from the backroom of a pharmacy overseas, and that those were seized by the -- by our Drug Enforcement Agency.

FEYERICK: Missouri had planned to use a fatal dose of Propofol, part of the so-called Michael Jackson cocktail. Instead the governor temporarily postponed executions pending review.

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FEYERICK: And, Carol, inmates are challenging the use of these new drugs in federal court. There is a lawsuit. They want to make sure that they are humane. There are at least ten executions scheduled between now and Christmas, and there are going to be four to five different drug combinations used in each of those -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Deborah Feyerick, reporting live from New York this morning, thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: "TIME" magazine gives us a look at never before seen photos taken minutes before JFK's assassination.

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COSTELLO: Next Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. This morning, we're getting a first look at never before seen photos taken minutes before his assassination. The photos published in the latest issue of "TIME" magazine were only recently discovered after the death of an amateur photographer, images like this one show JFK and a smiling first lady looking directly into the camera. At least JFK is in this one.

Join me now is Radhika Jones, deputy managing editor for "TIME" magazine.

Radhika, welcome.

RADHIKA JONES, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, TIME: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

I want to put up some of the photos and tell us why "TIME" magazine feels they're so special and why we need to see the pictures.

JONES: Well, it's obviously, even 50 years later, it's such a visceral event. And while on the one hand it's one of the most photographically familiar events in American history, probably, you know, so many people have seen the Zapruder film, the famous film of the assassination, and so many people have seen pictures of that day and the pictures of Lyndon Johnson being sworn in after Kennedy's death.

Still, when we saw the pictures when they came to us a couple of months ago, we felt this really visceral kind of transportation to that moment. So, they're so fresh, the crowd is so lively. The Kennedys are -- you know, they feel so full of vitality, and knowing that minutes later, the president would be dead, it just really transports you back to that moment and that's what we wanted to show our readers.

COSTELLO: Oh, it's so chilling and the other interesting part of these photos, the amateur photographer, was familiar with the city of Dallas. So we saw the depository picture there, we see pictures of the grassy knoll, that is of course a memorial.

But all those are just fascinating but chilling, too.

JONES: They are etched in our memory and this photographer as you say was an amateur photographer, and had lived in New Zealand, photographed there during World War II, came to Dallas, he was a jeweler, and he was a Kennedy fan and he was very excited when the Kennedys came to Dallas.

He staked out a good spot to photograph them, and, of course, what he ended up photographing was something incredibly tragic. He boxed up those negatives and never look at them again, and it wasn't until his death in 2005 that his daughter went through and found a box that was labeled "1963 Kennedy" and looked at the slides and realized what she had.

COSTELLO: The last question I'd like to ask you, you know, these pictures capture a moment in history that will never happen again. By that I mean back then people really thought the president was the father of our country. They loved the president. Today nobody considers the president the father of our country, and I don't think that day will ever recapture that as Americans. Do you?

JONES: I mean, I think there are still incredibly special moments to do with the presidency when you think about presidential inaugurations, moments of state, certainly the first inauguration of Obama was an historic moment for this nation. And a lot of people felt a similar kind of energy.

But certainly this was a moment in American history before -- speaking broadly before our trust was shattered in government institutions, and the assassination of President Kennedy was part of that slide. You think about the further assassinations that followed of Martin Luther King Jr., of Robert Kennedy, you think about Watergate and various scandals of the '70s, and all of these events when you combine them have sort of eroded trust in the stability and security of government institutions. I would say the other striking thing difference between then and now is, of course, now, everybody has a camera in his or her pocket, everybody can take video. You know, but at the time that wasn't the case and so these artifacts are special in a way that I think you wouldn't have today.

COSTELLO: Radhika Jones, deputy managing editor of "TIME" -- thank you so much for joining us this morning, and sharing the pictures.

JONES: Thank you.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

Tom Hanks was just a boy when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated nearly 50 years ago. He talked with CNN's Christiane Amanpour how he remembers November 22nd, 1963 and his new documentary on JFK which will air on CNN.

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TOM HANKS, CO-PRODUCER, "THE SIXTIES: THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK": I remembered thinking that this doesn't happen in the real world, a president doesn't get shot in front of everybody the way John F. Kennedy was. Now, at 7 years old I'm barely even a socially conscious being, but the overpowering sadness of every adult I came across was rattling.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What will the film show us?

HANKS: Well, the stuff we're doing for CNN is really taking how television covered these great moments both of history and sort of like society, everything from news reports to like the British invasion of rock bands, and it's how this medium that was really just coming in, too, its first great technological muscles and how it now looks so incredibly primitive, that we almost wonder how we hung so much importance on the truth that television told us, when really it was dictated by copper wire and innuendo almost.

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COSTELLO: CNN puts you on the ground 50 years ago, the day President Kennedy was shot, and how the events of that day changed the nation and the world. Don't miss the premiere of "The Assassination of President Kennedy". It airs tonight 9:00 Eastern and Pacific Time on CNN.

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

Alcohol abuse, illegal drug use and behavior best described as -- oh, erratic, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford once again refused to step aside or take a leave of absence. This time, he directly defied the Toronto City Council, the side show is quickly taking over city government. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you purchased illegal drugs in the last two years?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful.

ROB FORD, TORONTO MAYOR: Yes, I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, do you think you have an addiction problem with alcohol?

FORD: Absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, do you think you have an addiction problem with substance abuse and elicit drugs?

FORD: Absolutely not. The reason I drank or did drugs was not because of stress. It was out of sheer stupidity. That's all it was.

So I'm not going to blame something, I'm not going to use an excuse or a cop-out. I take full responsibility for my mistakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there some way that you can explain to us why you don't want to take a leave of absence?